Abstract
New strategic and growing markets related to connectivity, mobility, automotive, health and earth monitoring call for improved imaging solutions in visible, LWIR and VLWIR offering advanced functionalities and cost effectiveness. Visible imagers market is currently largely dominated by non-European countries. LWIR µbolometers imagers, fabricated above-IC, have not yet been democratized for high volume markets due to the difficulty to solve performance versus cost equation.
However, Asian providers are making important progress to tackle this challenge.
ATHENA aims at strengthening European economy in high-tech imaging technologies:
- by taking advantage of 3D stacking technologies, improved sensor-processing integration, multimodal 2D/3D functionalities,
- by preparing more advanced µbolometer manufacturing for productivity gain and improved functionalities, developing cost effective LWIR wafer level optic solutions,
- by using new process methods for future VLWIR imager manufacturability.
This will foster new applications related to wildfire detection and monitoring, innovative biomedical analysis, drone detection for secured civil airspace, enhanced border management, enhanced vision for emergency & safety services, consumer market application, automotive in-cabin monitoring, non-destructive inspection on aerospace structure, earth & climate monitoring.
ATHENA gathers a strong European consortium composed of highly renowned Research Technological Organizations, big industrial players in imaging technologies and end-users to specify, design, develop, test these technologies in use cases and set common specifications for the imagers to support their industrialization and widespread adoption.
In line with both the European Union's Chips Act and the Electronics, Components and Systems Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, ATHENA will not only address the development of new sensors and chips, but also their integration in larger systems to pave the way to promising applications. ATHENA will strongly contribute to Europe leadership, industrial competitiveness and sovereignty.
Objectives
The objectives of the ATHENA project are to develop:
- Technology bricks (3D sequential stacking, small pixel) development and qualification for innovative RGB imagers addressing consumer and automotive markets
- Monolithic hybrid (color +depth) visible imagers with reduced pixel pitch and improved image quality
- Advanced manufacturing and high performance/smaller pitch LWIR imagers addressing prosumer markets and large volume consumer market
- A new generation of VLWIR sensors, and associated manufacturing technology, that will fulfil the requirements of future European Earth Observation missions.
- Visible and IR imaging systems for health and environment protection (biopsy and water analysis, large-scale fire detection)
- Visible and IR imaging systems for border & security management.
- A scalable LWIR camera platform to address consumer market applications to enable LWIR sensors and cameras for a variety of consumer applications.
- An in-cabin monitoring solution for automotive applications
- Non-Destructive Inspection systems for industry allowing lower energy consumption and reduced cost
Funded by the Chips JU programme. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Chips JU. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them
COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
[ CEA ]
France
Nicolas LIO SOON SHUN
Nicolas LIO SOON SHUN
ADMIR
[ ADMIR ]
France
Laurent DURAFFOURG
Laurent DURAFFOURG
FULLSCALE
[ FULLSCALE ]
France
Rémi NIEUWJAER
Rémi NIEUWJAER
LYNRED
[ LYNRED ]
France
Xavier Lucquiault
Xavier Lucquiault
STMICROELECTRONICS GRENOBLE 2 SAS
[ STGNB 2 SAS ]
France
François GIGON
François GIGON
UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
[ UPC ]
Spain
Santiago Royo
Santiago Royo
CARL ZEISS AG
[ CZ ]
Germany
Maximilian Diefenbach
Maximilian Diefenbach
STMICROELECTRONICS CROLLES 2 SAS
[ STM CROLLES ]
France
Olivier Leneel
Olivier Leneel
TUSAS-TURK HAVACILIK VE UZAY SANAYII AS
[ TA ]
Turkey
Yahya Öz
Yahya Öz
SENSIA SOLUTIONS SL
[ SENSIA ]
Spain
José Álvarez Gallego
José Álvarez Gallego
CATUAV SL
[ CATUAV ]
Pol Ayats
Pol Ayats
YOUBIQUO SRL
[ YOUBIQUO ]
Italy
Antonio Zanesco
Antonio Zanesco
Institut de Física d’Altes Energies
[ IFAE-CERCA ]
Spain
Cristobal Padilla
Cristobal Padilla
SILICON AUSTRIA LABS GMBH
[ SAL ]
Austria
Thang DAO
Thang DAO
MAGNA ELECTRONICS SWEDEN AB
[ MagnaS ]
Sweden
Jan-Erik Kallhammer
Jan-Erik Kallhammer
MAGNA ELECTRONICS ROMANIA S.R.L.
[ MagnaR ]
Romania
Cosmin Memetea
Cosmin Memetea
ISD LYSEIS OLOKRIROMENON SYSTIMATONANONYMOS ETAIREIA
[ ISD SA GR ]
Greece
Constantin Papadas
Constantin Papadas
UMICORE IR GLASS SAS
[ Umicore UIRG ]
France
Raphaël Proux
Raphaël Proux
UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY
[ UoG ]
Irlande
LEMLEY Joseph
LEMLEY Joseph
FOTONATION LIMITED
[ FotoNation ]
Irlande
BIGIOI Petronel
BIGIOI Petronel
COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
[ TCD ]
Irlande
GORMLEY Michael
GORMLEY Michael
IDEMIA Public Security France
[ IPS ]
France
Henri Claudot
Henri Claudot
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ATHENA researchers present detector development results at the Scientific Detector Workshop 2025
2025-10-10
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