The semiconductor industry is the backbone of modern technology, powering everything from smartphones to advanced medical devices. With the EU Chips Act, Europe is dedicated to increasing its global semiconductor market share. Next to the launch of European pilot lines that aim to develop key technologies for semiconductor innovation, the EU Chips Act has proposed the EU Chips Design Platform as a vehicle to support the growth of fabless chip companies in Europe.

The EU Chips Design Platform will enable fabless companies to access the resources they need quickly and efficiently via a cloud-based virtual environment, offering chip design resources, training, and capital. Coordinated by imec, twelve key European research players in the semiconductor ecosystem have joined forces in a consortium to create this design platform.

The platform aims to onboard the first start-ups and small and medium enterprises by early 2026, providing them with low-barrier access to European design capabilities, including route-to-chip fabrication, packaging, and testing. It will offer customized support to access commercial electronic design automation (EDA) tools, intellectual property (IP) libraries, EU Chips Act pilot line technologies, and access to design IP repositories, including open-source options. Additionally, the platform will feature a start-up support program with incubation, acceleration, and mentoring activities next to financial assistance to help early-stage companies turn their innovative ideas into reality.

“The EU Chips Design Platform will provide crucial resources for start-ups and SMEs to accelerate their design journey and bring their business ideas to market faster. By reducing the barriers to access of design expertise, including EDA tools and IP, and drastically lowering chip design and fabrication costs and time-to-market, we will spark the growth of the European chip design industry,” stated Romano Hoofman, imec project coordinator.

How the EU Chips Design Platform fits into a wider European strategy

The EU Chips Design Platform is part of a broader, coordinated effort to build a resilient European semiconductor ecosystem. While this new platform provides developers with the tools and infrastructure needed for chip design, the 30 national competence centers deliver hands-on expertise and local support in 28 countries across Europe.

Pilot lines like APECS, nanoIC, Fames, PIXEurope, and WBG continue the process by providing access to manufacturing technologies required for prototyping, testing, and scaling production. In turn, the recently launched aCCCess project ensures that these activities of the Chips for Europe Initiative are well connected, creating a coordinated pathway that supports European innovation at every stage.

Coordination Team of the EU Chips Design Platform

The Platform Coordination Team of the EU Chips Design Platform consists of imec (Belgium), the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, France), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. (Germany), Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (Germany), Silicon Austria Labs (Austria), Fondazione Chips-IT (Italy), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, Spain), International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Portugal), Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands), Tampere University (Finland), CVUT (Czech Republic) and AGH University of Krakow (Poland). The grant agreement with the Chips JU, through the European Union’s Digital Europe program, is ongoing and will be signed later this year. The project will run from 2025 until the end of 2028.

Follow the European Chips Design Platform LinkedIn page for more updates.