electronica’s Automotive Conference will present the latest developments in Automotive Electronics

The “electronica automotive conference” taking place on 10th and 11th November 2008 at the International Congress Center Munich (ICM) in conjunction with the electronica 2008 trade fair and its electronica automotive forum to be held from 11th to 14th November 2008 at the Munich International Trade Fair site, is committed to presenting the latest technological and economic trends in automotive electronics. By closely tying the automotive conference with the electronics forum, which primarily, but not exclusively, focuses on software in practical applications, along with a comprehensive exhibition presented by technology leaders in the field of electronics, the Munich International Trade Fair has created a unique platform for automotive electronics worldwide.

In addition to participating in the “electronica automotive conference” as speakers or delegates, leading automobile manufacturers and industry suppliers will also be actively involved in the electronica trade fair itself both as exhibitors and visitors. As early as two years ago 13,000 of the 78,000 trade visitors in total registered as prospective exhibitors in the automotive exhibition area, including top employees and executives from Fiat, Peugeot, Nissan, Honda, BMW, Toyota, Daimler, Porsche, VW, MAN, Ford, Audi, Opel, Renault, Rolls-Royce, Skoda and Volvo as well as Bosch, Alpine, Hella, TRW, Valeo, Visteon, Conti VDO, Harman/Becker, Johnson Controls, Lear, Kostal and Magneti Marelli.

The “electronica automotive conference” serves as a platform for an entire industry: besides being used as a means of communicating directly to their customers, manufacturers of automotive electronics and suppliers to the automobile industry also make use of this stage to promote their corporate image, while automobile manufacturers take the opportunities offered by the conference to pave the way for new trends in electronics technology. Under the maxim “electronics meets automotive”, experienced speakers will give talks on current and future technologies, strategies and trends over the two days of the conference. Expert speakers are expected from BMW, Delphi, Sharp, Valeo and Volvo as well as ELMOS Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, Panasonic Industrial Europe, STMicroelectronics and Tyco Electronics AMP.

On the first day the “electronica automotive conference” will get straight down to business by discussing the popular trend towards ultra-low cost cars. In his talk on “Ultra Low Cost Cars - Opportunities and Challenges” (10th November 2008, 11:30 to 12:00 am) Ian Riches, Director of “Global Automotive Practice” at the market researcher Strategy Analytics, will be examining the resulting challenges for developers and suppliers of automotive electronics and semiconductors while also presenting the most promising applications. Peter Lück, Senior Manager at Volkswagen Powertrain Development, will take a look at the future of the automobile. His talk on “Electrification of Powertrains at Volkswagen” (10th November 2008, 10:00 to 10:30 am) will illustrate how the electrification of the powertrain will effect not only the characteristics but also entire nature of drive and vehicle concepts with additional reference to the requirements and technologies of the storage battery and electric drive. The talk on the “Demands and Realisation of Automotive Power Electronics” (10th November 2008, 13:30 to 14:00 pm) given by Hans-Peter Feustel, Continental Automotive, will deal with the challenges of hybrid vehicles in the context of power electronics. The expert on this subject will examine the consequences and necessary measures in terms of the design layout of hybrid power supply systems, focussing in particular on mechanical and thermal mechanical loads. He will also present a protection concept, examining specific solutions for realising power electronics in hybrid applications.

A total of 20 presentations on specific subjects are planned over the two days of the conference. The complete program of the “electronica automotive conference” will be available under www.electronica.de/en as from mid June 2008.

Parallel to the conference, the electronica trade fair will start on 11th November 2008. Around 3000 exhibitors in 14 exhibition halls are expected at the world’s leading trade fair for electronic components, systems and applications with approximately 1,250 exhibitors presenting automotive applications. Here, the theory of the “electronica automotive conference” merges with the practical aspects of the electronics automotive forum to be held in Hall A6.