Industry groups boost call for EU Chips Act 2.0
Two semiconductor industry groups have renewed calls for a second version of the European Chips Act.
European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) and the European arm of the US SEMI trade association held a round table this week with members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Both have already called for an improved Act for European chip makers and designs.
“Our sector sees three priorities: We need a clear European semiconductor strategy that is backed by a revised European Chips Act with more quickly advancing administrative procedures. Secondly, we must identify the right approach to trade and foreign policy leading to more resilience, and thirdly, continue our focus on fostering innovation,” said ESIA Vice-President Frédérique Le Grevès.
The MEPs signed a joint declaration to the European Commission’s Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, calling for an ambitious follow-up to the Chips Act to add new research and development (R&D) funds, attract new investments, and increase European competitiveness.
This comes as the US is closing its Chips Act investments and even clawing back some funding.
“The creation of a new European semiconductor strategy was a focal point of the discussion today, emphasising on the increasing need to boost the technological capabilities and accelerate innovation across the European semiconductor ecosystem,” said Laith Altimime, President, SEMI Europe.
Investments from the 2023 EU Chips Act was mostly funded by member states but required approval by the European Commission, increasing the administration overhead.
This comes as the six pilot lines for semiconductor technologies are rolling out across Europe as part of the Chips Joint Undertaking (JU). As part of this, the FAMES project issued its open call for participants to work with 10nm and 7nm FD-SOI low power process technology. Imec in Belgium is building a pilot line for 1nm process technology.
The Commission points to more than €43 billion of policy-driven investment to support the Chips Act until 2030, mostly through the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, which will be broadly matched by long-term private investment.
This is focussed on investments in next-generation technologies and providing access across Europe to design tools and pilot lines for the prototyping, testing and experimentation of cutting-edge chips, as well as security.
It also looks to provide a more investor-friendly framework for establishing manufacturing facilities in Europe, which has seen TSMC set up ESMC in Dresden, although Intel suspended its plans for a fab in Madgeburg, Germany, under previous CEO Pat Gelsinger and the suspension of the joint venture fab between GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics in Crolles, France, both of which had billions of euros of support under the Act. However it has encouraged ChipFlow to set up in Spain.
www.eusemiconductors.eu/esia; www.semi.org
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