Developing emerging technology areas at reasonable development cost in an unproven market

Our client, a leading supplier to the automotive industry, had developed a prototype hydrogen sensor, anticipating that hydrogen power might potentially become the next big direction for the industry and wanted to make sure it was positioned to maintain its leading-edge status.

However, if this prototype was ever to be truly viable, it would require a safety critical ASIC, something that their own supply chain was unable to provide. They approached Cambridge Consultants seeking advice to define a design process that would lead to a qualified product.

Our response was to develop a requirement specification for a new ASIC and to define an appropriate design methodology that would prove to automotive manufacturers that this sensor truly met the required safety critical functionality. However, as part of our project we established that however robust the ASIC's design, the strength of the end product would only be as good as the supply chain that would produce it. With the horizon for hydrogen fuelled cars still potentially 15 years away before reaching any critical market size, the investment case for a full development in the short-term looked questionable. To help the client continue to achieve its strategic goals, we also developed a business plan that considered alternative markets that a family of products could be developed for. This plan was subsequently used to strengthen the sensor's supply chain, ensuring that once it reached production it would be able to fully satisfy all aspects of a safety critical development.

We subsequently went on to develop an architecture for the ASIC based on re-use of proven technology to reduce risk and accelerate timescales and eventually developed an ASIC capable of supporting customer evaluation.