European chiplet pilot line starts operations

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) – appears not to be based in any one location. Rather it is a network of manufacturing operations based 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.

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.”