imec signs up European firms for automotive chiplet programme

imec has signed up ARM, BMW, Bosch, SiliconAuto, Siemens and Valeo in Europe as well as ASE, Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Tenstorrent for its Automotive Chiplet Programme.

A meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has seen key companies sign up to the Automotive Chiplet Programme run by Belgian research lab imec.

The programme, revealed by eeNews Europe in October 2023, brings together stakeholders from across the automotive ecosystem in a pre-competitive research effort. The aim is to evaluate which chiplet architectures and packaging technologies are best suited to support car manufacturers for high performance computing with strict safety requirements. Japan and Asia are already moving forwards with automotive chiplet design and manufacturing programmes.

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 “The adoption of chiplet technology would signal a disruptive shift in central vehicle computer design, offering distinct advantages over traditional monolithic approaches. Chiplets facilitate rapid customization and upgrades, while reducing development time and costs,”said Bart  Placklé, vice-president of automotive technologies at imec.

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“However, moving to a chiplet architecture is prohibitively expensive for OEMs if done in isolation. Commercial viability thus hinges on industry alignment around a set of chiplet standards, enabling car manufacturers to procure chiplets from the market and integrate them with proprietary chiplets to build unique offerings.”

Automotive chiplet designs have to meet strict reliability and safety requirements, ensuring continuous operation and passenger safety over a car’s typical lifespan of ten to fifteen years. Cost is another crucial factor to consider. These are some of the urgent issues imec’s Automotive Chiplet Program will address.

“The agility of chiplets will allow the automotive ecosystem to respond quickly to changing market demands and technological breakthroughs. They also facilitate flexible component integration, limiting the risk of vendor lock-in and improving supply chain resilience. In addition, their optimized performance leads to lower power requirements, enabling compact device design,” said Placklé.

“We are convinced that all stakeholders will gain important insights from the program’s pre-competitive, collaborative approach – leveraging the partners’ collective wisdom and means to make rapid progress.  The valuable precompetitive learnings from the program can be instantiated in further R&D and product innovation to accelerate the partners’ own differentiating, long-term roadmaps.”