The State of Brandenburg is supporting IHP – Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics with €4.11 million for the establishment of the APECS pilot line (“Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems”) under the European Chips Act. APECS is part of a European initiative designed to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities, reduce dependence on third countries and help increase Europe’s share of global chip production to 20 per cent by 2030.
APECS is a collaborative project in which IHP works together with thirteen institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin. The focus is on new interconnect technologies and integration methods designed to make complex microsystems more powerful, more energy-efficient and more compact. The aim is to build key technological competences in the field of advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration and to accelerate the transfer of innovations from research into industrial applications.
“With the APECS pilot line we are making an important contribution to ensuring that Europe once again becomes more independent and competitive in the development and manufacture of modern semiconductors,” says Prof Dr-Ing Gerhard Kahmen, Scientific and Technical Managing Director of IHP. “IHP contributes its many years of expertise in microelectronics research and thereby strengthens Germany’s innovative capacity within the European network. Funding from the State of Brandenburg enables us to expand our research infrastructure in a targeted manner and to build the bridge from fundamental research to industrial application.”
The €4.11 million from Brandenburg forms part of the national co-financing which, together with funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), provides the basis for the deployment of EU funds under the European Chips Act. In total, IHP will receive around €33 million for its contributions to the APECS pilot line by 2029.
