European Chiplet Innovation: APECS Pilot Line starts Operation in the Framework of the EU Chips Act

December 16, 2024

The pilot line for “Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems” (APECS) marks a major leap forward in strengthening Europe’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities and chiplet innovation as part of the EU Chips Act. By providing large industry players, SMEs, and start-ups with a facilitated access to cutting-edge technology, the APECS pilot line will establish a strong foundation for resilient and robust European semiconductor supply chains. Within APECS, the institutes collaborating in the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) will work closely with European partners, to make a significant contribution to the European Union´s goals of increasing technological resilience, strengthening cross-border collaboration and enhancing its global competitiveness in semiconductor technologies. APECS is co-funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking and national funding authorities of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain, through the “Chips for Europe” initiative. The overall funding for APECS amounts to € 730 million over 4.5 years.

APECS logo

Europe is home to a vibrant ecosystem of (hidden) champions, from tradi-tional enterprises in vertical markets, to SMEs and start-ups the competitive advantages of which lie in superior semiconductor-based solutions. Never-theless, many of these companies are currently confronted with limited access to advanced semiconductor technologies, while at the same time these technologies are increasingly becoming the most important factor for innovation and market growth.

The European Commission is investing significant resources under the EU Chips Act to strengthen semiconductor technologies and applications in the European Union. This aims to enhance Europe’s technological resilience, secure supply and value chains, and drive innovation in emerging fields such as energy efficient AI, manufacturing, mobility, information and communica-tions, neuromorphic and quantum computing as well as trusted and sustainable electronics.

The APECS pilot line focuses on bridging application-oriented research with innovative developments in heterogeneous integration*, in particular emerging chiplet** technologies. By pushing beyond conventional system-in-package (SiP) methods, APECS will deliver robust and trusted heterogeneous systems, significantly boosting the innovation capacity of the European semicon-ductor industry.

Investments in strategic projects such as APECS under the EU Chips Act, is crucial for positioning Europe as an indispensable partner in the global technology sector. Germany plays a key role in this endeavor – both as a leading research hub and a driving economic force. Thanks to substantial funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the federal states of Saxony, Berlin, Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, and Saxony-Anhalt, it will be possible to further expand the R&D infrastructure in the coming years within the framework of the APECS pilot line. This represents a crucial step toward ensuring the long-term economic stability of both Germany and Europe.

© loewn/Bernhard Wolf
Within the framework of the APECS pilot line will be possible to further expand the R&D infrastructure for semiconductor technologies and applications in the coming years.

© Fraunhofer ISIT
Post-CMOS pressure sensor chiplets with wafer level packaging before dicing.

“Fraunhofer plays a central role in the implementation of major projects such as APECS, which strengthen Germany's technological resilience and capacity for innovation,” emphasizes Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. “With our practice-oriented research and close collaboration with industry, academia, and political partners, we lay the foundation not only for developing cutting-edge technologies but also for bringing them into industrial application. APECS is an example how to connect research with business – it underscores how close cooperation with ministries and other partners can secure Europe´s position in the global microelectronics market.”

Innovation where European industries need it the most

The APECS pilot line will play a key role in supporting European microelectronics by developing new system integration technologies and unlocking new functionalities within the system-technology co-optimization (STCO) ap-proach. This will enable European companies to develop advanced products, even in low quantities, at competitive costs. By providing a wide range of technologies on a single platform, APECS is positioned to become Europe’s leading hub for the development of advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration.

APECS will be a key driver of collaboration among European RTOs, industry and academia, fostering a lively innovation ecosystem. Customers will benefit from a single point of contact to the APECS pilot line. APECS will cover end-to-end design and pilot production capabilities and accelerate progress from cutting-edge research to practical, scalable manufacturing solutions.

Furthermore, APECS will play a pivotal role in Europe's transition towards a carbon-neutral and circular economy through its promotion on eco-design and green manufacturing initiatives.

Boosting Innovation through strong multilevel Collaboration

The APECS pilot line builds on the structures established by the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD). In Germany, twelve institutes from the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics and the two Leibniz institutes FBH and IHP participate in APECS. The work is led by the central office in Berlin.

Prof. Albert Heuberger, spokesman of the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics and chairman of the FMD, emphasizes: “The success of the EU Chips Act relies on strong partnerships. For years, the FMD has successfully combined the strengths of decentralized research institutions with the collaborative potential of a centralized microelectronics hub. This clearly illustrates how APECS is set to become a long-term accessible pilot line for all Euro-pean stakeholders across the entire value chain. Together with the other EU Chips Act pilot lines, APECS will be a crucial component for heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging of the envisioned pan-European pilot line facility – and thus an indispensable instrument of EU Chips Act.”

The APECS consortium brings together the technological competences, infrastructure, and know-how of ten partners from eight European countries: Germany (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as coordinator, FBH, IHP), Austria (TU Graz), Finland (VTT), Belgium (imec), France (CEA-Leti), Greece (FORTH), Spain (IMB-CNM, CSIC) and Portugal (INL). APECS is coordinated by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and implemented by the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD).

*About Heterogeneous Integration

Semiconductor research and development is at the core of current technological (r)evolutions, ranging from artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, modern defense systems to robotics, power electronics, wireless communication, e-health care, quantum technologies, and more. Such future electronic systems will require more and more functions that cannot be provided by a single chip, even if advanced system-on-chip (SoC) concepts are used. Heterogeneous integration will go beyond current system-in-package (SiP) approaches. This concept of true heterogeneous integration is extremely important for next-generation devices based on future CMOS nodes, SiGe, SiC, III/Vs such as GaAs or GaN and all different types of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

**About Chiplets

Intellectual property (IP) blocks made in different technology nodes will be combined on an active interposer to reduce cost by increasing the production yield (smaller chips) and reuse across applications. This will also touch upon environmental properties of electronics in terms of resource efficiency, critical raw materials, modularity and re-usability of design blocks.

About Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD)

As a cooperation of the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics with the Leibniz institutes FBH and IHP, the FMD is the central contact for all matters concerning micro- and nanoelectronics. As a one-stop shop, FMD has been combining scientific excellence, application-oriented technologies and system solutions of the 13 cooperating institutes from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Leibniz Association into a broad customer-tailored technology portfolio since 2017.
Homepage FMD

About the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, based in Germany, is a leading applied research organization. It plays a crucial role in the innovation process by prioritizing research in key future technologies and transferring its research findings to industry in order to strengthen Germany as a hub of industrial activity as well as for the benefit of society.

Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft currently operates 76 institutes and research units throughout Germany. Its nearly 32,000 employees, predominantly scientists and engineers, work with an annual business volume of 3.4 billion euros; 3.0 billion euros of this stems from contract research, which is divided into three funding pillars. Fraunhofer generates a share of this from industry and license-fee revenue, totaling 836 million euros. This high proportion of industrial revenue is Fraunhofer's unique selling point in the German research landscape. Another share of contract research revenue comes from publicly funded research projects. The final share is base funding supplied by the German federal and state governments and enables our institutes to develop solutions now that will become relevant to the private sector and society in a few years.

Homepage Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

PRESS RELEASE

European Chiplet Innovation: APECS Pilot Line starts Operation in the Framework of the EU Chips Act

Innovation where European industries need it the most

Boosting Innovation through strong multilevel Collaboration

About Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD)

About the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

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Romy Zschiedrich