ISSCC 2023 Plenary - Jo De Boeck: EU Chips Act Drives Pan-European Full-Stack Innovation Partnership

Jo De Boeck, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, imec & KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

In every aspect of our life and society, semiconductors play a major role. The pandemic in conjunction with supply chain hiccups and geopolitical tensions made all regions realize that they need to revisit their presence in the semiconductor value chain. The European Commission projected the ambition of achieving a 20% share of global semiconductor production by 2030.

Europe can leverage existing strengths such as, among others, the unique position of equipment companies and leadership positions in 300mm semiconductor technology R&D. The Chips-for-Europe initiative will invest in pilot lines and ecosystems for chip manufacturing, embracing leading-edge and first-of-a-kind technologies. The pilot lines will allow early exploration of the potential impact of new technology features in advanced chip and system architectures. This will trigger increased demand and accelerate the industrial uptake of novel technologies. This type of innovation loop is also essential for deep-tech start-ups building their unique value proposition. The full-stack, networked model of industry collaboration is at the core of the EU Chips Act ambition and will impact different application domains such as heterogeneous cloud and distributed computing, connectivity, automotive, and health.

It is crucial for all this innovation potential that we, as an industry, consider that semiconductor
manufacturing is resource-intensive with respect to energy, water, chemicals, and raw materials. Design technology co-optimization (DTCO) and System-Technology co-optimization (STCO) methodologies can develop a framework for early sustainability assessments of logic technologies. Finally, we urgently need to get the message across that climate, health, safety, and human connectedness all require complex digital backbones, if we want to stand a chance of attracting the right talent.