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Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) has become one of the most important tools for innovation project development. It has been used for several companies and good results are being reported as effect of the methodology. This paper aims to present an application of DFSS on an automotive technology development process. It was possible to listen to the “Voice of customer”, translate it into measurable parameters, generate potential concepts and finally identify the most adequate technology. The use of Design for Six Sigma methodology was shown very efficient to technology prospect. The structured frame work and focusing in two main points (being them first “Get the right design” and then “design right”) are the strengths of the methodology.

Efforts to enhance the productivity, to be in accordance with environmental regulations, to assure performance, quality and reliability in competitive market, are the major trends to any company of the industrial sector. This is particularly critical in the automotive market due to safety requirements and product conformity, but it is not enough to ensure success. The key to accomplish that is presented in this work through an investigation of innovation plans and technological strategy developed and applied to an electrical electronic architecture company. The results show the role of this approach prioritizing the corporative investment and goals, increasing profits by adding value to sale, analyzing collaboration between private companies and universities, revealing opportunities to apply for Government Innovation Program financial support. All these factors have been applied to the modernization of electrical automotive architecture for Brazilian emergent market.

The next generation of satellite system developed by the European Union and the European Space Agency, GALILEO, is schedule to be fully implemented by 2010. The system is being projected to operate at 1.17645 GHz (L5 frequency) for civilian purposes as an alternative of the currently North American system, and will be used as a safety signal on Ground Positioning Systems (GPS) devices. A low-cost microstrip antenna planar patch antenna resonating at L5 frequency is developed with optimized parameters for automotive applications. For the last 15 years, periodic structures are one of the most noticeable topics of research due to their promising applications in microwave circuit and antenna design. A Photonic Band Gap (PBG) dielectric substrate comprised of periodical structures was used during the development of this project intending to minimize the surface wave losses for a given bandwidth, and therefore, a higher performance antenna could be achieved.