TD Shepherd attended the 2022 annual EDA conference (EDA as in European Defence Agency), which took place on December 8th in Brussels. The conference featured several panel discussions as well as regular keynote speeches. The most important takeaways from the conference were:
— the €70B increase in defence related investments until 2025;
— the recognition of the importance of dual-use technology and its missing support in the current innovation landscape;
— the need for easing procurement rules for the (European) Defence departments;
— and last but not least, the need to be able to rapidly scale production when circumstances require this (industrialization of the supply chain);
— The latter includes the drive to secure (synonymous with “localization”) that same supply chain.
Generating infrared light isn’t difficult. But generating it on a chip — reliably, efficiently, and compactly — is a different story. Traditional IR sources rely on heating elements. They radiate across a wide range of wavelengths, consume significant power, and require filters to isolate the signals. Manageable in labs, unworkable in wearables.
Innovation tends to follow a familiar path: first, we invent something powerful. Then we shrink it. Only then does it become an everyday part of the infrastructure. But one layer is still missing in today’s technology: sensing beyond the visible.
The journey from concept to market looks very different in traditional tech compared to deep tech. While traditional tech benefits from streamlined processes and quicker iteration, deep tech ventures face longer, more complex cycles due to the groundbreaking nature of their innovations.