Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
5. Airbus buys out OneWeb from AOS jv, satellite manufacturing facility
Airbus U.S. Space & Defense has completed a deal with Eutelsat OneWeb to purchase its 50% share of the Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS) joint venture. Specifically, it will the become the sole owner of AOS and also its satellite manufacturing facility in Merritt Island, in the part of Florida dubbed Space Coast. The AOS joint venture was originally established in 2016. It has since built more than 600 satellites – at the rate of two per day, states the company – representing OneWeb’s first generation constellation, currently operating on orbit.
4. Heart-on-a-Chip promises cardiovascular benefits
Researchers at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a tool for building a heart-on-a-chip (HoC) which replicates humanlike models for studying cardiovascular diseases. The HoC promises to replace animal testing, shorten drug development timelines and reduce costs. It mimics the interactions of cells within the heart on a small chip and is part of the larger organ-on-a-chip (OoC) suite. The actual design of the HoC varies, but it is typically a small, transparent or semi-transparent chip.
The US has launched its $5 billion National Semiconductor Technology Centre. The launch was announced on Friday at the White House by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The $5 billion funding comes out of the $11 billion earmarked for chip R&D in the 2022 $250 billion Chips and Science Act. The centre will research and prototype advanced ICs. It is, Raimondo told the White House event: “A public private partnership that the government, industry customers, suppliers, academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists to come together…”
2. China consortium formed to push solid state EV battery development
China has formed a consortium of solid state battery developers to push the technology fearing that its EV industry could become uncompetitive if other countries bring out EVs with solid state batteries before China does. Called the China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform (CASIP) it includes: CATL, FinDreams Battery (a BYD subsidiary), CALB, EVE Energy and Gotion High-tech. CASIP includes academia with universities and research institutes including the Chinese AcademyIMG_2909-150×150.jpeg of Sciences, and government-backed investment funds.
The High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market has the potential to grow to $14 billion this year, says Yole Developpement, with a CAGR23-29 of ~38%, reaching about $37.7 billion in 2029. It is led by the continuous expansion of data-intensive AI and HPC applications. As a result, the HBM sector will largely outgrow the overall DRAM market and remain undersupplied throughout 2024. 4F2 cell designs, hybrid bonding, and monolithic 3D DRAM will enable long-term DRAM scaling.
