By akademiotoelektronik, 15/12/2022

Press area How to meet digital challenges?

Although forecast exercises are sometimes difficult, what panorama do you make digital developments in the years to come?

Even if history calls, in fact, to modesty, three main trends are taking shape today, on which, let us immediately specify it, no value judgment is paid.

First element: the growing presence of digital technology in all areas of social and economic life.In our daily lives, housing is no longer just a place of residence but also, and more and more, a place of connected work.The interfaces that we use also transform: the "grow" screens, the commands are always more intuitive (touch, vocal ...).If the young generations are already used to it, this could facilitate the use of digital technology by the oldest who sometimes have trouble with current technologies.We also observe a growing use of augmented reality glasses in many sectors - education, entertainment or even industry - just like, in transport, the use of software facilitating driving, thereal -time information consultation, etc..

© Halfpoint - Fotolia.com

In professional life, the arrival of digital twins and 5G and then 6G will promote, by disregarding distances, the development of telepresence and collaborative work, in a more "comfortable" way than today.In short, all this converges towards the strengthening of what is called "digital continuity": the virtual is present everywhere and all the time, as illustrated by the projects of "Metals*" recently mentioned in the press.

Second element: the explosion of artificial intelligence applications and cybersecurity needs that will have to be taken into everyday objects.But obstacles remain to be crossed: confidence in the reliability of the results, the protection of personal data, performance and associated energy consumption.On this last point, it is necessary to invent the supports which will make it possible to execute the "local" treatments, as close as possible to the users, to exempt themselves from the Cloud which is expensive and energy -consuming.

Last element: all this progress is made by consumer objects.If the smartphone was the first article to be sold to billions of copies (3 or 4 billion in total), the number of connected objects in 2030 will be much higher, in the order of 60 billion!Hence the importance of mastering the manufacture of components, highlighting recently with the shortage of semiconductors with which manufacturers face, who are very dependent on digital.With the current bipolarization of China / United States, it is therefore an issue of sovereignty faces to which France and the European Union must organize.Both can count on CEA, which is very present on all the subjects I mentioned: men/machine interfaces, processors, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity ... CEA will have an increasingly important role to playTo support these developments as if to think the safeguards to set up.It is a necessity for the autonomy of France and it is our mission of research and development.

Precisely, how would you define CEA activities in the digital field?What are their specificities in the landscape of French and European research?

Le numérique, au sens large, joue un double rôle dans les activités du CEA : c’est à la fois un levier puissant d’enrichissement de la R&D réalisée dans nos laboratoires au service des grandes mutations sociétales, et un objet en soi de souveraineté pour la France et l’Europe.Thanks to the work of reflection that we carried out in 2020 on our contribution to the development of digital technology, we have become aware of our forces ... No less than 3,000 researchers are invested in this area and our challenge is to make them work even bettertogether !Even if the word is a little overused, transversality must be cultivated and encouraged.We have already set up a certain number of tools: a exchange platform to create a real "digital community" at CEA;Three shared equipment intended to explore new solutions for data processing whose CEA is both consumer and producer, to help the design of new materials and for software development;Finally, the implementation, each year, of some collaborative projects called Moonshots, who will give birth to very ambitious and innovative demonstrators, representative of the CEA know-how.

© Adobe Stock - siarhei

Because, the specificity of the CEA is its positioning which covers the entire chain of values: exploration of innovative concepts, fundamental research to develop its physical principles and technological research to convert these same principles into technical solutions with dedicated equipment.And we go as far as industrial implementation thanks to our technology transfer activity and start-up creation.It is the great strength of CEA: a capacity for innovation that gives it an overview, therefore realistic, of all this channel.

But we are not alone.In France, we work, of course, with our alter ego, the other major digital players: the CNRS, Inria and Mines Telecom.At European level, CEA is, with Imec in Belgium and Franhofer in Germany, a recognized protagonist as a technological research center - or RTO to use the Anglo -Saxon acronym.We are all three involved in different European programs and we will, at the request of the European Commission, further pool our efforts ... Union is strength!

Let's go back to the challenge of sovereignty that you mentioned and which we hear a lot.What does it cover precisely and what concrete actions should be taken?

Take the example of the French automotive sector.In the roadmap she built for the coming decade, she believes that she needs components of 10 nanometers between 2025 and 2030 then less than 10 nanometers after 2030. Il est donc nécessaire, d’une part de mener la R&D initiale puis le développement technologique - c’est la mission du CEA et il en a la capacité, d’autre part d’investir dans des unités de production - c’est le rôle de ST Microelectronicset de SOITEC.It is in this coordinated action that the whole issue of sovereignty rests!

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More generally, the investment plan "France 2030" recently presented by the President of the Republic provides for a microelectronic component with 6 billion euros at the national level.On a European scale, the European Chips Act - 40 billion euros - should be voted in January 2022 by the Brussels Parliament.We are almost in the same order of magnitude as the United States where a similar law, being examined by the congress, provides investments up to $ 52 billion.France and Europe have an important role to play in the world's "supply chain" of digital, and thanks to these investments, they remain in the race.

In this increasingly digital world that you describe, how to reconcile frugality and performance?

These are uses, in particular transfers of video flows and artificial intelligence, which generate most of the digital energy consumption.What is limiting today is that everything is going in the cloud.You have to cross the 80 % local treatment threshold in 2030 if you want to "reduce the bill".For example, the most advanced graphic processors on the market, used to boost the performance of objects that we handle daily, consume between 300 and 500 watts.However, a electric car need processors that only spend 2 to 3 watts ... The challenge is therefore immense because it is necessary to reduce the consumption of these components of a factor 100 or even 1,000!

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With 5G then 6G, much less energy -consuming than previous generations, telecommunications performance will already be improved.But this is not the only criterion to take into account.Basic research must thus invent new principles of calculation, for example Quantiqueset with innovative materials, to avoid the use of rare earths overexploited today.And it will also be necessary to progress in the optimization of software processing.

Present on all these subjects, the CEA will set up, in 2022, a specific research program around digital frugal. Nous ne résoudrons pas cette question sans des efforts considérables de R&D.And this is our mission.

Beyond science, how does the CEA ensure that its research is still responsible and ethical?

This is a double approach: on the one hand, being able to answer the questions posed by CEA teams so that they are in line with the research they conduct;On the other hand, assess the possible uses of our innovations to ensure that they cannot be diverted for liberticide or abusive purposes.

The CEA thus plans to create a committee dedicated to these questions, which would not be a body of control but of support, in connection with experts from the human and social sciences, to shed light on its teams, put in place the custody-Fus necessary and advise the public authorities on the policies committed.

* Metals: fictitious virtual world