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electronica Nov 2014
H
IGHLIGHTS
market volume is expected to increase to more than 430 billion
euros by the year 2025. In the future, mobility will to a large extent
be influenced by developments in automotive electronics. The lat-
est buzzwords include energy efficiency, electromobility, connected
car and autonomous driving. This year, some 1,500 exhibitors will
demonstrate these and other topics at electronica. If the cars of the
future are able to communicate not only with the driver but also
with other cars and intelligent transportation systems or even oper-
ate autonomously, the automotive industry will need to address new
security requirements.
The fair not only allows visitors to see the latest technologies: The
automotive Forum and the lectures and panel discussions also offer
the opportunity to gather information about the latest developments
and trends. During the four days of the 2014 fair, the topics of power
electronics and automotive software will be the focus of special atten-
tion. The electronica automotive conference is being held on Novem-
ber 10. The conference is where leading executives and experts from
the automotive sector meet to exchange ideas and information about
topics that play a key role in the transition affecting the entire indus-
try. The lectures at this year’s conference are divided into three subject
areas, i.e. lighting, sensor fusion and connectivity.
LEDs, the successor to the traditional light bulb is taking over chal-
lenging tasks in the automobile industry, in Smartphones and in highly
complex robots, and is ensuring optimum efficiency at the same time.
According to a study by the German Energy Agency, the share of LED
products in lighting technology is expected to continue growing. Now
that the second phase of EU Regulation 1194/2012 on stricter guide-
lines for light bulbs and high-voltage and low-voltage halogen lamps
went into effect on September 1, 2014, there will also be new regula-
tions on energy-efficient lighting technologies in 2015. These require-
ments are not just coming from the officials: in the automotive sector
in particular, manufacturers are searching for more productive lighting
alternatives. That is why modern LED technologies will be one of the
most important topics for the exhibitors at electronica 2014.
Lectures about trends in lighting technology will be held with Luger
Research as part of the electronica Forum. It all revolves around the
International Year of Light. Dr. Joseph Niemela from the Abdus Salam
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Triest, Italy, will
hold a keynote on the topic on November 13. Immediately after the
address, there will be a panel discussion with prominent international
speakers. Experts will discuss strategies and technologies that can be
used to further increase the ability of the European lighting industry
to compete next year. The event that follows at 11:45 is about design.
Technical directors and engineers will exchange ideas and informa-
tion about the most important electronics trends in solid-state lighting.
Besides the forum and the exhibitor stands, experts at the electronica
automotive conference will take a special look at this topic.
Energy efficiency is increasingly becoming a key criterion for several
industrial sectors. That is why this topic plays an important role in all
exhibition sectors at electronica. While energy-efficient solutions still
have to establish themselves more firmly in some fields, they have
already done so in the display sector. During the past few years, TFT
displays have achieved considerable energy savings in the industrial
and consumer-goods sectors. However, new technologies show how
much potential is still available. For example, displays with four-pixel
colour systems (R/G/B + White) make it possible to reduce energy
consumption by up to 30 percent. Furthermore, e-paper and memory
displays only consume electricity when display content changes. Still,
other factors besides energy efficiency also play an important role,
especially in the industrial sector. They include readability, sturdiness,
ease of use, cost-performance ratio and long service life.
