EU Chips Act: A Game Changer For The Digital Economy

The global semiconductor landscape has undergone significant transformation in recent years. With disruptions such as the semiconductor supply chain crisis and the challenges it posed to the automotive sector, Europe’s dependence on external fabrication facilities, particularly in Taiwan, has become a pressing concern. In response, the European Union (EU) introduced the EU Chips Act, a comprehensive framework designed to reduce this reliance and boost Europe’s share of the global semiconductor market.

ITF Chip into the Future, hosted by imec at SEMICON Europa 2024, was a pivotal event that brought together industry leaders, policymakers, and experts to explore the implementation of the EU Chips Act and the future of Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem. Jari Kinaret, Executive Director of the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU)—the body overseeing the EU’s semiconductor investments—explained, “The Chips JU is about capacity building to drive semiconductor innovation in Europe. We will continue to be dependent on the rest of the world, but we want to make sure that the rest of the world depends on us as well.”

Jari Kinaret, Executive Director, Chips JU

European research is driving progress towards sub-nanometer fabrication

One of the pilot lines, located at imec’s research center in Belgium, is focused on advancing methods that push Moore’s Law forward by achieving smaller and more efficient circuit features. As Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of imec, explained, “imec is now powering innovation for tomorrow’s chip designs, including stacked layers of chips, with each layer containing specific functionality implemented on chip processes optimized for each function. This allows us to scale much further than if all functionality had to be implemented on a single monolithic layer.”

Luc Van den hove, President and CEO, imec 

Another pilot line, based in France and operated by CEA-Leti, is focused on pushing the limits of technology across multiple dimensions. CEA-Leti CEO, Sébastien Dauvé, explained that the goal of the FAMES pilot line is to advance “not only FD-SOI at 10nm and 7nm nodes, but also novel non-volatile memory technologies, RF components, 3D integration, and the development of small inductors for DC-DC converters.”

Sébastien Dauvé, CEO, CEA-Leti

Advancements in 3D integration and chiplet technologies are closely tied to innovation in chip packaging. Christoph Kutter, Executive Director of Fraunhofer EMS, described how the Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems (APECS) pilot line in Germany is designed to meet the needs of industrial customers’ growing demand for advanced packaging solutions. Kutter noted, “Customers told us that they needed to integrate logic and power, sensors and logic, and other combinations of functions. We have built the APECS pilot line to provide what they asked for.”

Christoph Kutter, Executive Director, Fraunhofer EMS

The EU Chips Act is spurring investments not only in chip fabrication but also in the underlying technologies which support chipmaking. Emmanuel Sabonnadière, EVP at Soitec, highlighted how fabrication of advanced silicon carbide (SiC) power devices “is enabled by SmartSiC technology from Soitec – part of a built-in-Europe solution for silicon carbide.” Sabonnadière explained that SmartSiC technology “creates very thin layers of SiC material which make really differentiated substrates supporting the production of high-performance SiC devices.”

Emmanuel Sabonnadière, EVP, Soitec

Innovation in materials emerged as an important theme at ITF Chip into the Future. Julien Arcamone, Vice President of Corporate R&D at ASM, described the critical role of materials for atomic layer deposition (ALD) in advancing 3D semiconductor integration. Arcamone emphasized the importance of collaboration across the semiconductor value chain, describing ASM’s partnership with imec as part of “a win-win ecosystem.”

Julien Arcamone, Vice President of Corporate R&D, ASM

Developing the skills to implement advanced semiconductor technologies

While the EU Chips Act is subsidizing the construction of new facilities including pilot lines needed for the hardware of the semiconductor industry’s expansion, the ITF speakers underlined the equally important “software” element of the semiconductor industry ecosystem: the knowledge and expertise of the people working in the industry.

One of the biggest challenges in implementing the EU Chips Act is addressing Europe’s talent gap. Katrien Marent, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at imec, said that the gap is in part “because students who graduate in STEM subjects are not trained in advanced semiconductor technologies.”

From left to right: Katrien Marent, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, imec; Julien Arcamone, Vice President of Corporate R&D, ASM; Thomas Heurung, CEO, Siemens EDA; Frédérique Le Grevès, President STMicroelectronics France and Executive Vice President, Europe & France Public Affairs, STMicroelectronics; Romano Hoofman, Director imec.IC-link, imec; and Christophe Frey, Vice-President of EU engagements & Managing Director, Arm.

Thomas Heurung, CEO of Siemens EDA, highlighted the need for educational reform in the electronics industry. He suggested that “we might not have the right degree-level curriculum for changing times in the electronics industry. We need to change the way that we train students at university, and we need more scope for early or mid-career training on specialist micro-curriculums aimed at a particular skill or knowledge set.”

The industry also struggles to attract individuals. Frédérique Le Grevès, President of STMicroelectronics France and Executive Vice President, Europe & France Public Affairs of STMicroelectronics, emphasizes the importance of rebranding the industry to attract new talent. She remarked, “The word ‘semiconductor’ itself isn’t very exciting—it’s even off-putting to some. By simply changing the name of educational programs, we’ve seen significant increases in enrollment. This demonstrates the power of language in shaping perceptions and interest.”

Thomas Heurung of Siemens EDA also called for a stronger emphasis on entrepreneurship, noting “there is a big contrast between Europe and the US, particularly Silicon Valley.” He explained how his company’s Cre8Ventures unit had been set up to help start-ups through the key stages of creating a successful new company, including product development, attracting funding, and bringing the product to market.

Thomas Fleischmann, Program Manager at Robert Bosch, explained how the EU Chips Act has accelerated the formation of the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) joint venture, in which Bosch is a key stakeholder. ESMC is building a new semiconductor fabrication plant in Dresden, dedicated to producing chips for the automotive and industrial sectors. Fleischmann emphasized that ESMC will play a crucial role in helping Europe “scale advanced technologies to high volumes at a competitive cost.”

In addition, the EU Chips Act also provides a broader platform for the expansion of Europe’s deep tech capacity. This includes the creation of five pilot lines, which will offer European companies access to manufacturing capacity for prototyping at the most advanced semiconductor technology nodes.

Thomas Fleischmann, Program Manager, Robert Bosch

ITF Chip into the Future at SEMICON Europa 2024 highlighted the broad scope of the EU Chips Act – not only supporting the building of advanced fabs but also providing the foundations for technology development, production, and marketing – all aimed at supporting semiconductor innovation in Europe.