The goal of the LACIS's project is to demonstrate the validity of a new approach for color and spectral imaging sensor and camera systems. The demonstration will be given by building one or two prototypes showing the functionality of the novel approach and measuring the improvement compared to the state of the art. The novel approach is based on two principles inspired from the human visual system. First, human retina consist of a mosaic of cone photoreceptors (LMS) but the mosaic arrangement of cones is changing from individual to individual without impinging on color vision capability of the individual. A generalization of this principle would say that we can build a color sensor with any arrangement of color samples in the color filter array that cover the camera. This flexibility of sensor colorization allows optimizing the sensor for many type of application, particularly those that need multispectral encoding. Our prototypes would be therefore equipped with different color filter array and the performance of these different sensors will be tested. Second, instead of being perfectly linear with light intensity, the human retina response is non-linear and adaptive. Adaptation to light allows the human visual system to be sensitive to a large range of light value despite the noisy nature of the retina cells. We will implement this property on the prototypes in analog, before the analog to digital converter to prevent from noise amplification due to digitalization. A previous prototype have already been build and tested favorably by two members of the project. A new implementation has been proposed for a patent and will be implemented in the project. The general goal of the project is to build a demonstrator composed by (1) new filters, either pseudo-random 6x6 RGB, or multispectral based on COLOR SHADE technology, (2) a locally adaptive color CMOS sensor and (3) a motherboard including embedded processing for color or spectral image reconstruction optimized for spatio-spectral information. The demonstrator will be given by a functioning prototype that will deliver images of size 256x256 and showing the properties of the new approach for color or spectral sensor. The consortium is composed on three entities, two laboratories (LPNC, TIMA) and a company (SILIOS Technologies). The two laboratories have already worked together on a first prototype of light adaptive sensor. TIMA is well recognized in microelectronic and have a long achievement in sensor building. LPNC has developed several models for spatio-spectral representation and demosaicing method as well as high dynamic range and tone mapping inspired from human vision. SILIOS is a SME that develops technology and know-how on micro-optics and more specifically on multispectral filters for spectrometry and multispectral imaging. The project will open new products and skill for the company and new intellectual property for the consortium.

Reliability and durability are key considerations to successfully deploy Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs). Since the link between materials defects and performances at the scales of the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) and the stack is now well documented, LOCALI shall provide information about the propagation of these defects to other materials or to other locations in the stack. LOCALI aims to improve the existing systems and will ultimately provide effective tools to control their mass-production, the quality of the stacks and their diagnosis for on-site maintenance (stationary) or for on-board (transportation) applications. To these goals, the study focuses on three main axes, developed for PEMFCs (but which can easily be implemented for E-PEM). Firstly, LOCALI will develop instrumentation dedicated to local current density measurement and local electrochemical impedance spectroscopy: well-instrumented segmented cells and magnetic fields measurement are the core competences to these goals. The second challenge of LOCALI is, by using tailored defective MEAs or thanks to specific operating conditions (flooding, reagent exhaustion, ...) to characterize how local and overall performances of the MEA are affected, and to identify the signatures of the various anomalies. Our target is to identify the source of the heterogeneities as well as to locate degraded areas inside a stack. Finally, LOCALI will enable to track, during ageing, how the initial and controlled defects do propagate upon operation. A particular attention will be paid on two points: (i) does a defect in the one material of the MEA (e.g. a hole in the PEM) influence the local degradation of its neighboring materials (e.g. the catalyst layer); (ii) does the defect propagate spatially, and if so, does it happen only at the MEA scale (e.g. from the inlet to the outlet regions) or at the stack scale (i.e. from the defective cell to its neighboring ones).

The project Swallowing & Breathing: Modelling and e-Health at Home (e-SwallHome) aims to explain the normal behavior of two coupled functions in human, swallowing and breathing, to better understand the etiology of the mechanisms underlying pathological behaviors of dysphagia, dyspnea and dysphonia, related to a brain stroke. The project will focus on developing, from the understanding of these mechanisms, a set of protocols for diagnosis, monitoring at home, educating and rehabilitating patients at risk of death from asphyxia or fall without the possibility of triggering alarm signals (e.g., in case of brain stroke or chronic disease - such as trisomy 21 - with impaired swallowing / breathing and, consequently, speech). To achieve its objectives, the project will develop research in three areas: 1) Modeling: building a model that integrates the central control and the peripheral effectors of swallowing and breathing, taking into account the associated feedback to centers from existing models. 2) Metrology and signal processing: defining parameters and variables of the integrated model, which will be the subject of metrology, if possible at home (concerning the variables) and estimating, if possible in a personalized way and if necessary in hospitals their individual value (concerning the parameters). 3) Monitoring and Education: using these measures in real time, which allows the visualization of real pathological behavior, in reference to a prototypical normal behavior, for example in the context of a procedure for preventing falls in the flat or on the road, or suffocation with or without a fall, and for establishing a protocol for biofeedback and / or serious games for education or rehabilitation of the patient. The expected results are: • an improvement of the quality of life of people suffering from diseases related to the functions of swallowing and breathing, thanks to tele-home support, combining technological innovation in e-health practices and innovations in swallowing / breathing rehabilitation. • an economy in the support by the national health insurance of rehabilitation procedures and social rehabilitation, including a rapid recovery of normal speech. • a better understanding of physiological control by the centres of the functions involved in the project, and an explanation of the etio-pathogenesis of the related disorders. • the design and implementation of home sensors, and exploitation by the clinician of the information collected at home, in order to improve the knowledge about the patient and his/her illness.

The cochlear implant (CI) in congenital deaf children is now widely considered as a highly efficient means to restore auditory functions. However, after several decades of retrospective analysis, it is clear that there is a large range of recuperation levels, and in extreme cases some CI recipients never develop adequate oral language skills. The major goal of HearCog to improve rehabilitation strategies in CI children, it is to better understand and circumscribe the origins of such variability in CI outcomes. The originality of HearCog project is to consider CI outcomes in a broad range of interdependent aspects, from speech perception to speech production and the associated cognitive mechanism embedded in executive functions. The novelty of the proposal is both theoretical and methodological. The goals will be first to evaluate the capacities of the visual and auditory system to respond to natural environmental stimuli and to analyse neuronal mechanisms induced by sensory loss and recovery through the CI using brain imaging techniques (Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, fNIRS). In view of the co-structuration of speech perception and production during development, we will assess how deafness and CI recovery can alter speech production. But congenital deafness has deleterious impacts that extend beyond the auditory functions and encompass cognitive systems including higher-order executive processes. Based on the disconnecting model (Kral et al., 2016), our objective will be to relate neuronal assessment, using the fNIRS technique, of executive functions to auditory restoration in CI children. HearCog is based on longitudinal assessment on CI infants and age-matched controls, to search for prognosis factors of auditory restoration. We will also compare these measurements to data acquired in older CI children implanted for several years, and controls. In fine our goal is to acquire objective measures of brain reorganization that could be linked to variability in CI outcomes and therefore would constitute a predictive factor. HearCog is at the crossroad of cognitive neuropsychology, clinical research with a strong opening toward education. Consequently HearCog is translational and multidisciplinary with the unique objective to understand the compensatory mechanisms induced by congenital hearing loss to support both the social insertion as well as the insertion within the school system of cochlear implanted deaf children.

The market introduction of high temperature wide bandgap power semiconductor devices with junction temperature exceeding 200°C significantly accelerates the trend towards high power density and severe ambient temperature electronics applications. Such evolution may have a great impact in aeronautics applications, especially with the development of More Electric Aircraft (MEA), since it can allow to reduce the mass and volume of power electronics systems. As a consequence, the aircraft operating cost can decrease. However, for electronics used under such harsh conditions, the package reliability and the heat evacuation are very critical issues. The goal of this project is to design and fabricate high performance double sided cooled power electronics modules with optimized thermomechanical properties. The assembly is based on copper joints and a copper heat sink and integrates several technological breakthroughs. Three main technological bricks will be deeply addressed in order to reach the target: 1) Synthesis of nanoporous copper films, either freestanding or directly deposited on metallized substrates with controlled microstructure: In order to limit the risks, three independent strategies will be investigated during the project: the synthesis of nanoporous copper free standing films using melt-spinning and chemical dealloying techniques, the direct on-substrate electroforming of copper-alloy followed by anodic dealloying, and the direct growth of nanoporous structures without any additional treatment by tuning electrolyte formulation and plating parameters. 2) Thermocompression of the nanoporous copper films for die attach: Conventional heating will be achieved at low pressure and in inert/reductive atmosphere. An alternative method based on laser induced fast heating will also be evaluated to thermocompress the nanoporous copper in air. Both solutions allow to limit the oxidation copper issues. The underlying physical mechanisms taking place during the thermocompression of the various morphologies and microstructures of nanoporous copper films will be in-depth investigated. The joint stability under electro-thermo-mechanical aging conditions will be evaluated. 3) Deposition of thick copper layers for substrate/heatsink assembly using electroforming process: A thick dense metal layer will be deposited on a designed sacrificial polymer preform allowing to create a wide range of complex shapes directly on the metallized substrate with low residual stresses. This technology combined to virtual prototyping will allow us to fabricate high performance heat sink patterns (liquid forced convection without phase change) in terms of high local heat transfer coefficient and low pressure drop. The thermal-hydraulic performances of the heat sinks will be analyzed with an experimental setup. The robustness of the assembly (substrate/heat-sink) under repetitive temperature variations will be also evaluated. Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices based power modules (inverter phase leg) using the aforementioned technological bricks will be realized and evaluated in the project. Electrical, thermal and robustness tests are planned to estimate the module performances. The COPPERPACK project will contribute to validate and push our concept from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2 up to a TRL 3-4 with a functional technological demonstrator.