European chiplet pilot line starts operations

Partners | December 16, 2024

By Peter Clarke

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A pilot line for advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, funded with €730 million by the European Union and multiple national funding authorities, has started operations.

The line is known as APECs – for Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems (APECS) – has a decentralized structure making use of manufacturing facilities at the research institutes across Europe that can be funded by the mechanism.

The APECS pilot line is part of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) network, which includes multiple Fraunhofer and other research institutes across Germany including Dresden, Berlin and Munich. It is expected to provide a wide range of technologies and become a hub for the development of advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration. To this end it also includes participation from ten research partners from eight countries. These partners include: IMEC, CEA-Leti, Fraunhofer and VTT.

APECS is expected to provide end-to-end design and pilot production capabilities from R&D to practical, scalable manufacturing solutions. It will be able to provide access in small quantities to companies that could not otherwise afford access to the technology.

APECS is co-funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking and national funding authorities of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain. The overall funding for APECS amounts to €730 million over 4.5 years.

In a statement the Fraunhofer IPMS added that thanks to substantial funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German federal states there are plans to expand the R&D infrastructure in the coming years within the framework of the APECS pilot line.

“A key asset of the APECS pilot line is its decentralized structure, which combines specialized technological expertise from partners across Germany and beyond,” said Kai Zajac, project manager at Fraunhofer IPMS, in an email to eeNews Europe. “Based in Berlin, the APECS one-stop-shop provides clients with tailored solutions for heterogeneous integration and chiplet technology. Here, the customer works with APECS to determine the best path to the final product. Once a concept is in place, the extensive APECS network of partners will dive deep with the customer and build the final prototypes and products,” he added.

Professor Holger Hanselka, the president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, said: “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.”