Intervention of Luis Fonseca at Els Matins on TV3: "Missing chips: will we manufacture here?"

The director of the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona, researcher Luis Fonseca, has participated in the Els Matins program on TV3 to discuss the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) announced by the President of the Spanish Government, the largest investment of public money with the aim of designing and manufacturing chips in Spain.

The program was broadcast today and Fonseca was accompanied by Mateo Valero, director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and Pere Alemany, from the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. Els Matins, presented by Lídia Heredia, dealt with the history of chip manufacturing in Spain, the needs for the creation of an industry and the application of the different types of chips.

President Pedro Sánchez announced on April 4 an investment project for the development of the microchip and semiconductor industry, with the goal of achieving independence from external supplies and foreign production, concentrated in Asia and, above all, in Taiwan. The plan is endowed with 11,000 million euros of public investment. It is an announcement that comes after more than a year with production stops due to the supply crisis. Currently, 9% of the world's microchips are manufactured in Europe and the goal is to reach 20% in less than a decade.

Fonseca has defended the design and manufacture "close to home" and "zero kilometer", to achieve technological independence and hold the intellectual and industrial property of semiconductors.