By Adele Hars
What’s at stake?
Europe asked its “Big Three” research organizations – Leti, IMEC and Fraunhofer – to come up with recommendations for an R&D road map for the European Chips Act, a plan to bolster the continent’s shrunken chip industry. The trio’s proposal includes moving FD-SOI technology to the 10nm node for the heterogenous systems their industrial partners in automotive, IoT, health care and sustainability require. Will the EC approve this daring plan? We’ll find out this summer.
After almost two decades working his way through the ranks of Leti, Sebastian Dauvé was named CEO of the Grenoble, France-based technology research institute in July 2021. He had just a few weeks to settle into his new job when Brussels came calling with a big ask: Team up with IMEC and Fraunhofer to make recommendations for an R&D road map that would enable Europe to attain greater digital sovereignty and grow its share of the world chip market from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2030.