As part of the National Growth Fund launched in 2020, the NXTGEN HIGHTECH program, with a conditional subsidy of around 450 million euros, focuses on developing a new generation of technology.
Gregor van Baars, senior systems engineer in mechatronic systems at TNO (one of the partners in this joint initiative) and employed one day a week at TU/e, wrote the Mechatronic Systems Architectures section in the proposal submitted by the Next Generation High Tech Equipment program (NXTGEN HTEq). The goal is to build and integrate the appropriate multidisciplinary knowledge required to take full advantage of new design methods, materials, etc. so that new system architectures can be developed for High Tech Equipment (HTEq)/Semicon. Here, Gregor brings us up to date on the challenges posed.
The Mechatronic Systems Architectures proposal (with a €9 m subsidy initially requested) has significant backing from private partners and knowledge institutions whose commitment is underlined by letters of intent. Of course, the wheat must be sorted from the chaff in the coming few months to arrive at concrete, detailed projects. “The task I’m facing right now,” says Gregor, “is to try to gain a good overview of the mechanism – the process – by which choices will ultimately have to be made, and the match-up between the funding and project proposals. But I’m fairly optimistic that our proposal will prevail since it is really one of the keys to consolidating the market and the knowledge position of the high tech equipment development system.”
Synergy, connection, embedding
To enable broad utilization and thus growth, it is important to strengthen the ecosystem of knowledge and systems engineering. The knowledge that is developed must land in the minds and hands of large groups of people in the HTEq world, with embedding in educational programs recommended so that newly trained engineers, scientists and technicians equipped with the latest knowledge become available and can be deployed to unlock the latest skills in HTEq development. The bridge between academia and industry is central to this development.
“Connecting academic research to application in the engineering domain is important,” Gregor explains, “and therefore it seems useful to consider synergy, connection or even embedding these initiatives into an overall growth fund proposal.
Furthermore, within the National Growth Fund there are opportunities in the in-depth program whereby universities can apply for PhD positions in open calls. At TNO we welcome this opportunity to get knowledge into application by engineering companies.” Wearing his TNO hat, Gregor was instrumental in establishing a mechatronics working group, to which HTSC is also attached, to help support this aim.
“I feel that it is important for companies like TNO take a lead in driving such initiatives,” Gregor explains, “and mobilize support from the partners and help organize this knowledge transfer. So being in both camps, TNO (industry) and TU/e (academia) I enjoy a role in coordinating PhDs and my connection with HTSC in this respect.”
Dog kennels of the future
Gregor is keen to stress the need to keep pushing the boundaries. “For me it is vital to keep the toolbox of core disciplines strategically-up-to date, but with an eye on the value to the application (the system job). It is very important to have new knowledge and technology (such as 3D printing, AI, model-based design, metamaterials etc.) available in the minds and hands of system architects and designers in a timely manner in order to keep following roadmaps that demand continuous improvement of system performance.
So building improved systems goes hand-in-hand with pushing the level of your competencies in terms of applied mechatronics, applied systems engineering, applied science. Push the limits of mechatronics, think about disruptive system architectures and design principles, learn to exploit new technologies like additive manufacturing and design optimization, absorb new domains like cryogenics and new metamaterials. Let’s get these new technologies into our mechatronics toolbox so we can boost the key industries like semicon and agriculture.
This is the spirit we embrace in our proposal.” A proposal that could go a long way to supporting other NEXTGEN projects, in both the semicon domain and other domains that could benefit, ultimately securing future prosperity for both business and society.