Baden-Württemberg Attracts imec to Lead Chiplet-Based Tech

Imec and the State Government of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, announced, at the Hannover Trade Fair, the launch of the Advanced Chip Design Accelerator (ACDA).

The new imec competence center in Baden-Württemberg (southwest of Germany) will develop state-of-the-art chiplet, packaging, system integration, sensing, and (edge) AI technology as part of imec’s Automotive Chiplet Program (ACP).

By adding this complementary expertise to imec’s existing automotive R&D offering, the new competence center will be able to better support the local and international automotive industry in derisking and accelerating the introduction of automotive chiplets into manufacturing.

The minister-presidents of Baden-Württemberg and Flanders have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last year to intensify the cooperation in the field of microelectronics.

The Advanced Chip Design Accelerator is part of a chip-design strategy of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. The project is embedded in the European’s Commission strategy to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty. The competence center is financially supported by Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg with €40 million, initially for a period of five years.

The new center’s objective responds to the emerging shift from traditional chip technologies towards chiplet-based compute architectures in automotive, a technology more suited to enabling demanding functionalities such as autonomous driving and enhanced in-cabin experience.

Chiplets are modular chips specifically designed to perform specialized functions, facilitating rapid customization and upgrades, while reducing power consumption, development time and cost.

Furthermore, the state of Baden-Württemberg will support the chip-ecosystem with an additional €5 million for a network office and the support for scientific cooperation on chiplet technologies, headed by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

“We are excited to bring our expertise and global partner network to the state of Baden-Württemberg, the cradle of the automotive industry in Germany,” said Luc Van den hove, president and CEO of imec. “We also look forward to expanding our collaboration with Fraunhofer to leverage on our complementary expertise and lay the foundation for future chiplet solutions.

“To realize 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,” added Van den Hove. “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.”

“We are delighted to warmly welcome imec as a cutting-edge research institution with their new competence center in in Baden-Württemberg,” said Winfried Kretschmann, minister-president of Baden-Württemberg. “As one of the most innovative regions in the world, with a strong automotive industry and with high expertise in AI, Baden-Württemberg and imec are a perfect match.”

“Imec, with its roots in Flanders, has a globally strong reputation in digital technology,” Matthias Diependaele, minister-president of Flanders, noted. “This international collaboration with Baden-Württemberg is essential to maintaining imec’s technological leadership.”