€1.67 billion available for the deployment of pilot lines
In a significant move towards strengthening Europe's position in the global semiconductor landscape, the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) has four open calls for proposals for innovative pilot lines. These calls will have the European Union's substantial investment of €1.67 billion that will also be matched by national contributions.
The pre-commercial production setups dedicated to manufacturing small volumes of technology-based products or using inventive production methods are one of the actions of the Chips for Europe Initiative, established by the European Chips Act. These pilot lines will provide the industry with facilities to test, experiment, and validate semiconductor technologies and system design concepts, ultimately accelerating industrialisation and time-to-market, and bridging the gap between the EU's advanced research capabilities and sustainable industrial use.
The focus areas for the pilot lines are:
- Sub 2nm leading-edge system on chip technology: Concentrating on cutting-edge technology for advanced semiconductors at sizes of 2 nanometers and below, crucial for various applications, including computing, communication devices, transport systems, and critical infrastructure.
- Fully Depleted Silicon on Insulator technologies targeting 7 nm: Aiming to develop a roadmap towards 7 nm transistor architecture with distinct advantages for high-speed and energy-efficient applications.
- Packaging and Heterogenous Integration: This initiative seeks to combine semiconductor materials, circuits, or components into compact, high-performance systems.
- Semiconductor devices based on Wide Bandgap semiconductors: Focusing on materials enabling electronic devices to operate at higher voltage, frequency, and temperature than standard silicon-based devices, to develop highly efficient power, lighter weight, lower costs, and radio-frequency electronics.
The open Call for proposals includes three interrelated calls: a Call for Expression of Interest, a Call for the Set-up, integration and process development that will be funded under the Horizon Europe programme, and a Call for the operational activities, which will be funded under the Digital Europe Programme. Each applicant consortium will have to submit one application that will include three interrelated proposals, one for each interrelated call, by 29 February.
One consortium will be selected for each one of the calls, and the projects are expected to start in the second quarter of this year. For further details and to participate in the open call for proposals, visit the dedicated page on the Chips JU website.
