SunRISE wins PENTA Innovation Award 2022. SandGrain is proud to be one of its consortium members.

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On November 25th Project SunRISE was presented with the PENTA Innovation Award for novel solutions to protect data privacy in machine learning environments during the EFECS2022 event.

Project leader, Leonard Püttjer from NXP Semiconductors, accepted the award on behalf of the consortium members comprised of a variety of companies and academia from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The PENTA SunRISE project was an extremely important project for SandGrain as it allowed us to develop and implement our first SandGrain chips and ID management & authentication systems in a strong European consortium.

We would hereby like to wholeheartedly congratulate all consortium members on this most important achievement. As a forward-looking company we believe that by winning this Innovation Award, the consortium members have proven several real benefits for today’s society; and drawn attention to a fast-paced developing market, which will help strengthen the overall EU position on valuable data protection, supporting the accelerating growth of the Internet-of-Things, and overall lifecycle management.

Based on these valuable learnings we are now starting the next phase with customer evaluations and pilots. We would like to thank all of our collaborators for this special opportunity.

Hans Kersting (Product Develop Manager): “SandGrain’s Authentication Platform consists of an easy-to-integrate hardware token that is managed in a cloud application. This cloud platform can interface with the user’s automation system (ERP) and ensure that system information is up to date at all times. This will significantly improve service levels and customer satisfaction.”

Jeroen Doumen (Chief Security Architect): “Our Authentication Platform is a robust and scalable solution for one of the main Internet-of-Things challenges: authentication of the many and widely dispersed end nodes. It utilizes a new system approach to security by combining simple, unique, hard-coded ICs that safeguard the nodes’ identities together with a centralized platform that manages these throughout their lifecycle.”

Being a company focused on these main keynotes, SandGrain is in a unique position to be an excellent future partner for a wider variety of customers looking for a robust and easy-to-integrate solution in new and existing systems alike, whilst securely tackling the fast-growing challenges of the industry.

We believe that trusted authentication will play a crucial role in safeguarding the ever-more interconnected world of today and tomorrow.

Contact details: E-mail: info@sandgrain.eu | Website: www.sandgrain.eu

Sunrise collaboration partners:

A Seminar by SandGrain: “AUTHENTICATION PLATFORM FOR HIGH TECH EQUIPMENT

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On June 22nd, SandGrain held its 2nd seminar targeted at High Tech OEMs regarding

  • counterfeiting
  • embedded software copy protection
  • secure downloads/updating of firmware

Eduard Hoeberichts (CEO SandGrain) opened the seminar by addressing the opportunity costs for an OEM over the total lifecycle of a product due to counterfeiting and illegal copying of firmware. Presenting statistics, o.a. from the Pentagon, on how many products in the tech industry are counterfeited and the resulting financial, IP, and brand/image losses. Following was Subhajeet Rath (Research Scientist TNO) on the European passport regulation and their research findings featuring blockchain technology as an ideal transparent platform for the sharing of essential battery data over the total lifecycle. The SandGrain strong authentication solution was pitched as an ideal way to assure the data in the blockchain belongs to a specific physical battery. Next was the value of ownership potential for VDL ETG of using good anti-counterfeit solutions, based on years of experience in the field with many high-tech systems.

After a break with fruitful network discussions, Dr. Ir Egbert-Jan Sol (Program Director Smart Industry TNO) presented the need for the internet to evolve from a “data-transfer” to a “value-transfer” medium. Predicting many new “broker-less” marketplaces and increased servitization once the coupling can be assured between the blockchain transactions and the delivery and ownership of the physical goods. He also elaborated on the NXTGEN project in which these topics are researched together with SandGrain. Nexperia-ITEC with Leonard Lensink (Senior Principal Software Engineer) was the last speaker sharing Nexperia-ITEC’s considerations on security and control of their high-tech semiconductor manufacturing equipment. These become factors of importance, as they are transforming from a traditional OEM for an internal Nexperia market to external markets, considering the EaaS business model. The potential role of SandGrain was also highlighted. The last session was performed by Pieter Hooijmans (CTO SandGrain) in which he illustrated the details of how the SandGrain solution can address counterfeiting, secure firmware downloads, firmware copy protection, and other use cases of strong authentication of individual parts of high-tech equipment. EaaS offerings are currently being constructed by OEMs to address their challenges of higher service levels, predictive maintenance, and circularity.

The seminar was closed with exciting observations of Hans Priem (Business Manager VDL ETG), who stressed the relevance, and thus, the potential of the SandGrain solution together with final words from Eduard and a networking drink enjoying the sun at the Evoluon.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to our next seminar!

SandGrain announces an Award under the take-off program of the NWO

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The Netherlands – February 17, 2022 – SandGrain was awarded a subsidy for a study into the life cycle traceability of batteries for the creation of battery passports.

Under the take-off program, the NWO (De Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) subsidizes start-ups to be able to perform feasibility studies.

SandGrain and TNO Automotive (Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek) will perform a study on how to intergrade its innovative authentication platform in battery systems to create a battery passport. The added value of such a passport is to uniquely identify and authenticate each battery cell and through that enable the registration of its usage throughout its lifecycle all the way to the end of life. The intended system also provides a basis for a return to and recycling by its original manufacturer adding to a greener world.

Sustainability is served by traceability and counterfeit protection!

The project will start in March and will last 6 months.

For additional information and other inquiries to SandGrain, please contact eduard.hoeberichts@sandgrain.eu or visit www.sandgrain.eu.

About NWO, please visit https://www.nwo.nl/en

SandGrain B.V. to participate in Aeneas Penta SunRISE project

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SandGrain BV is very pleased to announce participation in and the approval for the Aeneas/Penta SunRISE project. In a strong European consortium SandGrain will develop a solution for Shared IoT Security, where the SandGrain chip will securely authenticate the end-nodes. The products will be tested in the context of a high value industrial asset and an energy grid solution.

Participants in the consortium are from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, and include a.o. NXP (Leader), Philips Medical Systems, Engie, Royal Philips, FraunhoferIIS, IMEC-NL, Sirris, Technolution, and several top universities like TU Delft, TU/e, TU Munich and TU Ulm.

“This is an extremely important project for us..” according to CEO Eduard Hoeberichts, “..as it allows us to develop and implement the first SandGrain chips and ID management systems in a strong European consortium. It is our objective to implement high volume chip manufacturing in the existing infrastructure of Europe and other countries, thereby enabling the chip industry to add a new capability to offer authenticated end-node IC’s cost efficient and in high volumes. This fits very well with the overarching objective of Penta – i.e. global leadership in the micro- and nanoelectronics industry in key applications segments.”

Startup SandGrain provides unique chip authentication for IOT

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SandGrain and TU Delft Enterprises are pleased to announce the formal start of business of SandGrain B.V.

SandGrain will focus on a totally new concept of hardware-based authentication of objects, that will allow asset tracking and a much higher level of security and robustness compared to today’s solutions. Founder and new CEO Eduard Hoeberichts, former ASML executive: “We strongly believe that our new company provides an unique solution for one of the main problems with the roll out of the Internet-of-Things: authentication of the IoT end node that is robust to hacking, copying or counterfeiting. This is a potentially very large market that is looking for new, cost effective and industrial scalable solutions“.

Founder and new CTO Pieter Hooijmans, a former Philips and NXP executive, adds: “With the SandGrain technology we solve the fundamental problem related to today’s use of microcontroller-based solutions, which are intrinsically prone to hacking. Due to the hard coding of our ICs hacking is effectively useless”.

Founder Casper Juffermans, Chief Process Technology, also former NXP Director of CMOS Process Technology Development, is the link to the Delft University of Technology: “The development of our proprietary technology will make use of the Else Kooi-Lab of the TUD, thus tapping into the huge experience of this organization in the field of IC technology”.

The other two founders are Jeroen Doumen, with 10+ years’ experience as Technology Manager in security products for Irdeto, and Halbe Lunshof, a patent expert in this field based on many years in the semiconductor industry.

Paul Althuis – director of Delft Enterprises adds: “Cybersecurity in general and more specific cybersecurity innovation based on chip hardware is a strategic area for TU Delft and we are very pleased to be closely involved in this exciting new technology that combines lithography, CMOS manufacturing and cybersecurity and supports a secure and sustainable society”.