Why is Yncréa Méditerranée interested in this field?
The market for connected objects is booming, accelerating digital transformation in the fields of smart cities, transport, wearables, energy management, machine-to-machine, banking, sales and more.
For more than ten years, ISEN Yncréa Méditerranée has been developing research and development activities dedicated to connected objects, with the aim of federating activities at all levels of the value chain, from design to use, as well as finding answers to new industrial challenges (secure architecture, autonomy, energy harvesting, interoperability, intelligence, etc.), technological challenges (3D integration, smart systems, etc.) and environmental challenges.), technological (3D integration, reconfigurable systems, security, embedded A.I., RISC-V) and societal (tomorrow's uses, new business models, the environment, privacy) challenges.
This theme responds to the democratization of IoT applications and their new functionalities, the growing need for data collection, the emergence of new communication media and the growing need for connectivity.
What does this research involve?
In this context, the "Smart Objects" team is responsible for :
- to imagine the intelligent objects of tomorrow in a secure way;
- model/simulate systems (RF, circuit, AI, architecture, etc.);
- Design and integrate electronic systems (hardware and embedded code);
- to prototype objects (circuit, antenna, packaging);
- characterize/diagnose/validate systems;
- to exploit and guarantee the integrity of the data (authenticity, sensors, signal processing, embedded A.I.).
How is R&D carried out?
The research work carried out in the laboratory is in line with the development of many industrial and academic partners such as STMicroelectronics, Thales DIS, IDEMIA, STARCHIP, SPS, KEOLABS, NXP, Infineon, ASK, INVIA, CEA, etc.
The skills developed in this research activity are also part of the teaching provided in several training courses at ISEN Yncréa Méditerranée.
Research and development work is carried out in five areas.
Imagining the intelligent objects of tomorrow
The Smart objects team works in close collaboration with Yncréa's research teams, and more particularly with the Human Sciences team, who, through co-design workshops, bring out the smart objects/uses of tomorrow in a targeted field.
Modeling/simulating systems
The team uses ANSYS simulation environments to study electromagnetic and radiofrequency phenomena: electric and magnetic fields, and antenna studies in the environment.
It also integrates the KEYSIGHT ADS simulation suites, allowing the study and modeling of electronic systems (analog and digital) as well as an overview of performance at the architectural level.
The team has FPGA prototyping platforms to emulate different system architectures (cryptography, RF, A.I., signal processing).
Developing in embedded environments
The team develops in embedded microcontroller environments for various application contexts: sensor management, low-power, A.I., edge computing, signal processing, etc.
Design and integrate electronic systems
As part of these developments, the team is required to route, prototype and design some bricks of the systems it studies and to make proofs of concept. The team is capable of miniaturizing devices and integrating them on flexible supports.
Characterize/diagnose/validate systems
- Characterization: the resources available at the Smart Object laboratory and at IM2NP, the host laboratory of most of the team members, allow us to study the performance of devices ;
- analysis: the developments carried out in the laboratory are partly based on software bricks that allow interfacing, storing, analyzing and processing sensor data;
- validation: the laboratory hosts a pre-certification and diagnostic platform for contactless devices. It allows testing radio frequency devices against current standards: NFC, EMVCo, ISO 14443 and 10373-6.
The future issues addressed in the framework of the developments of this research activity are new secure IoT architectures, autonomous systems (in intelligence, in energy) and connectivity by addressing standards (OneM2M, 5GI(IoT Mesh)) and their integrations (integrity/signal processing, etc.)
