The CSIC leads the Spanish participation in the EU Chip Design platform
The Institute of Microelectronics of Seville (IMSE-CNM), together with its counterpart in Barcelona (IMB-CNM), leads the Spanish participation in the EU Chip Design platform, which aims to facilitate access to advanced infrastructure for design in semiconductor technologies, as well as to provide training and advice to startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and research organizations.
A consortium of 12 European partners, coordinated by imec and led at the Spanish level by two of the CSIC's National Microelectronics Center (CNM) institutes, the Institute of Microelectronics of Seville (IMSE-CNM) and the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM), has been selected to develop the European Union Chip Design Platform (EuroCDP).
The main objective of this system is to facilitate access to advanced infrastructure for semiconductor design, as well as to provide training and advice to startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and research organizations. This is a major step forward in the democratization and promotion of semiconductor innovation at the European level, a key aspect to achieve significant progress towards the so-called digital sovereignty.
The semiconductor industry is a fundamental pillar of modern technology, driving everything from smartphones to state-of-the-art medical devices. Through the EU Chip Act, Europe is seeking to strengthen its presence in the global semiconductor market.
The project is scheduled to begin onboarding the first companies and startups early next year. Thereafter, they will be provided with access to discounted services that will foster European design capabilities, including a roadmap covering chip fabrication, packaging and testing. In addition, they will have specialized support to access commercial electronic computer-aided design (EDA) tools, libraries of intellectual property modules (IPs), and technologies through the EU Chip Act pilot lines, including open projects such as EDA tools and design flows, as well as an open IP block catalog that will be coordinated from the platform under the leadership of the CNM.
In addition to these two CSIC centers, which constitute the only Spanish contribution, the coordination team of the EU Chip Design Platform is composed of imec (Belgium), French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, France), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Germany), Leibniz (Germany), Leipzig (Germany), Leipzig (Germany), Leibniz (Germany) and Leibniz (Germany). (Germany), Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP, Germany), Silicon Austria Labs (Austria), Fondazione Chips-IT (Italy), International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL, Portugal), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, The Netherlands), Tampere University (Finland), CVUT (Czech Republic) and AGH University of Krakow (Poland).
The project will have a total funding of around 25 million euros, of which nearly one million three hundred thousand would correspond to the CSIC, and a duration of four years, from 2025 to 2028.
“The participation of the CNM in this project is strategic as it positions it as a reference center in chip and semiconductor design at national level, allowing to boost the Spanish ecosystem that will be reinforced with the creation of this platform,” says IMSE-CNM researcher Macarena Cristina Martínez Rodríguez, CSIC coordinator in the Project.
Only Spanish institution with such a strong presence in Chips JU
The aim of the Chips Joint United is to enhance Europe's technological resilience, secure supply and value chains and drive innovation in emerging fields such as energy-efficient artificial intelligence, manufacturing, mobility, information and communications, neuromorphic and quantum computing, as well as reliable and sustainable electronics.
CSIC is the only institution with such participation in the initiative: with IMB-CNM within two pilot lines, APECS for heterogeneous integration and PIXEurope for integrated photonic circuits; and two other competence centers, still under negotiation.
The Chip Design Platform (EuroCDP) is the strongest commitment to European design capabilities, in which IMSE-CNM has a key participation.
The European Commission's Chips Joint Undertaking supports research, development, innovation and future manufacturing capabilities in the European semiconductor ecosystem. It was launched by EU Council Regulation No. 2021/1085 and amended in September 2023 as part of the Chips for Europe initiative. To address the semiconductor shortage and strengthen Europe's digital autonomy, it has significant EU, national/regional and private industry funding of nearly €11 billion. EC Chips is funded by the European Union, EC Chips participating states and private members.
You can learn all the details of the project through their profile on the European Chips Design Platform LinkedIn page.