News and press releases

At Fraunhofer IZM, equipment is being prepared for the APECS pilot line. Fraunhofer IZM is one of 14 German research institutes contributing to the development of the pilot line, bringing together expertise, equipment and technologies from across the project. 5 videos show how the APECS pilot line is deployed at Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin.

There are practical barriers that make it difficult to turn a promising chip concept into a market-ready product. To lower these barriers the European Chips Design Platform (EuroCDP) helps make chip design more accessible, faster and more predictable. Together with national Chips Competence Centres and the five European pilot lines, EuroCDP creates a more continuous path from the initial chip idea through prototyping and validation to industrial application. The article looks at how this pathway works in practice and where APECS fits once projects move from design toward prototyping, validation and industrial implementation.

More than 500 participants from over 200 companies, including ASML, Bosch, Intel, Infineon, GlobalFoundries, and TRUMPF, gathered in Berlin on September 30 and October 1, 2026, for the inaugural edition of FIRST by FMD. The new European forum focused on key trends in microelectronics brought together decision-makers from industry, policy, and research who are actively shaping the future of microelectronics in Europe. A central focus was the APECS pilot line, a key building block of the EU Chips Act.

Europe has invested billions in its semiconductor industry. The decisive question now is how the pilot lines established under the EU Chips Act can create industrial value creation. Leading representatives from industry, research, and policymaking will discuss this at FIRST by FMD on September 30 and October 1, 2026, at the EUREF Campus in Berlin.

Europe’s need for semiconductors will nearly double by 2040 — to various degrees depending on the market segment and technology node, but the trend is clear (Source: ZVEI Study 2026: Europe’s Semicon Business Case – A Demand-Driven Perspective for a Competitive and Resilient Microelectronics Ecosystem). Consequently, Europe does not have a demand problem. Rather, efforts to translate this demand into industrial value creation have so far been insufficient and too slow. Political strategies alone are not enough to secure a leading technological position. The crucial question is therefore: What do Europe and Germany need to remain competitive in the long term and play a decisive role in shaping the future of microelectronics? Where do future opportunities lie?

In advanced microelectronics, the competitive edge is no longer defined by individual technologies, but by the ability to integrate them into reliable, scalable systems. As chiplet-based architectures and heterogeneous integration become the new standard, the key challenge lies in translating fragmented capabilities into coherent production flows. The APECS Pilot Line addresses this shift by placing demonstrators at the center of its approach: not as showcases, but as integration testbeds that validate how technologies interact under real industrial conditions and ultimately deliver measurable system-level performance. This article was originally published by INSIDE Magazine.

Europe is investing billions to expand its semiconductor capabilities. But technological sovereignty depends on more than new fabs and funding programs. It also depends on how quickly innovations move from research into industrial applications. FIRST by FMD focuses on precisely this transition. With this new European trend forum for decision-makers, Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) is bringing together leading representatives from industry, research, and policy. FIRST, short for Fast Innovation through Research in Semiconductor Technologies, will take place on September 30 and October 1, 2026, at the EUREF Campus in Berlin.

For several years, technological sovereignty has been a central term in discussions about semiconductor technologies and global supply chains. It refers to the ability of a state or region to develop, control, and economically use technologies considered strategically important. In the semiconductor context, the objective is to reduce far-reaching dependencies on other countries or individual companies. As geopolitical tensions and chip shortages, particularly in the automotive industry, moved higher on the political agenda, technological sovereignty became closely associated with strategic autonomy.

From April 20 to 24, 2026, the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) will be present at Hannover Messe. At the Fraunhofer joint booth (Hall 11, Booth D33), FMD will showcase application-oriented solutions addressing current industrial challenges – with a focus on the APECS pilot line and the German Chips Competence Centre (G3C) as two key pillars of Europe’s semiconductor strategy.

In this interview, Frank Altmann (Fraunhofer IMWS) explains how characterization, testing and reliability assessment throughout development help reduce risks in heterogeneous integration and support industrial applications within the APECS pilot line.