Imec, a research hub in nanoelectronics, in partnership with the State Government of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is set to launch a new chip research centre for the automotive sector.
The new centre, Advanced Chip Design Accelerator (ACDA), was announced at the ongoing Hannover Trade Fair.
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The new centre will focus on the development of automotive chiplet technology. It is backed by a financial boost of €40m ($43.28m) from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg.
To be located in Baden-Württemberg in Southwest of Germany, the centre will support the development “state-of-the-art” chiplet, packaging, system integration, sensing, and (edge) AI technology.
These developments are part of Imec’s Automotive Chiplet Program (ACP), aimed at enhancing support for the automotive industry by derisking and expediting the manufacturing of automotive chiplets.
Imec president and CEO Luc Van den hove said: “To realise the region’s ambitions, we will also focus on growing the talent pipeline across Europe by training engineers in close collaboration with the local ecosystem, including universities.
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By GlobalData“In addition, we aim to expand the developed high-performance computing solutions to the European level, thus contributing to the acceleration of innovation in the European automotive industry with unique and distinctive building blocks.”
The new centre will operate for at least five years at the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence in Heilbronn.
The centre aims to address the automotive industry’s shift towards chiplet-based architectures, which are said to be more adaptable and energy-efficient than traditional chip technologies and are crucial for advanced automotive functions such as autonomous driving.
This initiative supports the European Commission’s strategic goal of launching the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance.
Additionally, the State of Baden-Württemberg is investing a further €5m to bolster the chip-ecosystem.
State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism Dr Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut said: “High-performance chips are playing an important role for software-driven applications in core industries in Baden-Württemberg and are increasingly shaping mobility, artificial intelligence and digitalisation.
“With the establishment of Imec in Baden-Württemberg, we are creating an internationally visible centre of excellence that will significantly accelerate business-oriented research and development of chip-based innovations, particularly in the automotive industry, together with start-ups, industry and research in the region and beyond.”
