Imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, and the State Government of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, announced, at the Hannover Trade Fair, the launch of the Advanced Chip Design Accelerator (ACDA). The new imec competence center in Baden-Württemberg (Southwest of Germany) will develop state-of-the-art chiplet, packaging, system integration, sensing, and (edge) AI technology as part of imec’s Automotive Chiplet Program (ACP). By adding this complementary expertise to imec’s existing automotive R&D offering, the new competence center will be able to better support the local and international automotive industry in derisking and accelerating the introduction of automotive chiplets into manufacturing.
The Minister-Presidents of Baden-Württemberg and Flanders have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year to intensify the cooperation in the field of microelectronics. With the announcement today a big milestone has been reached in presence of Minister-President of Flanders Matthias Diependaele, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann and representatives of academia and industry.
The Advanced Chip Design Accelerator is part of a chip-design strategy of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. The project is embedded in the European’s Commission strategy to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty. The competence center is financially supported by Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg with 40 million euros, initially for a period of five years. It will be located at the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) in Heilbronn, Germany.
The new center’s objective responds to the emerging shift from traditional chip technologies towards chiplet-based compute architectures in automotive, a technology more suited to enabling demanding functionalities such as autonomous driving and enhanced in-cabin experience. Chiplets are modular chips specifically designed to perform specialized functions, facilitating rapid customization and upgrades, while reducing power consumption, development time and cost. The project also meets the strategic goal of the European Commission to launch the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance.
Furthermore, the State of Baden-Württemberg will support the chip-ecosystem with additional 5 million euros for a network office and the support for scientific cooperation on chiplet technologies, headed by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Luc Van den hove, President and CEO of imec: “We are excited to bring our expertise and global partner network to the state of Baden-Württemberg, the cradle of the automotive industry in Germany. We also look forward to expanding our collaboration with Fraunhofer to leverage on our complementary expertise and lay the foundation for future chiplet solutions. To realize the region's ambitions, we will also focus on growing the talent pipeline across Europe by training engineers in close collaboration with the local ecosystem, including universities. In addition, we aim to expand the developed high-performance computing solutions to the European level, thus contributing to the acceleration of innovation in the European automotive industry with unique and distinctive building blocks.”
We are delighted to warmly welcome imec as a cutting-edge research institution with their new competence center in in Baden-Württemberg. As one of the most innovative regions in the world, with a strong automotive industry and with high expertise in AI, Baden-Württemberg and imec are a perfect match. And with our innovative partners like the Fraunhofer Institute, KIT (Karlsruher Institute of Technology) and many other partners from academia and industry, we are boosting innovation for the new generation of automotive chips made in Europe. Strengthening our core competencies in chips, software and AI is crucial for Europe’s sovereignty.
Source: Here you can find the press release from the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg as well as more political voices on the expansion (only in German).
