Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems
As the technical lead, Dr. Steffen Kurth coordinates APECS activities at Fraunhofer ENAS. In this interview, the scientist outlines how the institute is creating technological impetus for the future as part of the pilot line.
APECS is regarded as a major European project. How is Fraunhofer ENAS ensuring that the complex research objectives are achieved at operational level?
We are tackling these challenges with determination. The institute has established a fixed core team and organized the tasks using a matrix approach across multiple specialist groups. This is how we can ensure that all our expertise is incorporated into the APECS work packages. Through the additional, close association with the central office of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD), we guarantee that content is managed precisely.
One topic that is often underestimated is standardization. Why is this work so critical to the success of APECS?
Without standards, the work cannot be scaled. Fraunhofer ENAS is therefore actively involved in European standardization in order to deliberately close gaps in the standards series relating to chiplet and heterogeneous integration. This is one task and an explicit expectation of the Chips Joint Undertaking, the European support and management framework for semiconductor innovations in the context of the EU Chips Act. As a result, APECS is becoming far more than a pilot line for individual projects. A genuine reference platform is being developed that is expanding Europe’s technological leeway in microelectronics on a permanent basis and with sovereignty in mind.
It is often highlighted that APECS is more than “just research.” Where is the key difference for European industry?
That’s correct. APECS is the backbone for a completely new generation of modular, heterogeneously integrated electronic systems in Europe. We bring together design, integration, testing and standardization in one infrastructure that is open not just to major corporations, but deliberately also to smaller enterprises and start-ups.
Fraunhofer ENAS sees itself as a technical pacesetter offering significant expertise in integration and packaging, a broad testing and reliability basis, and STCO methods – and all this with unparalleled enabling technologies. The institute therefore assumes a role that alternates between being a hidden champion in the group and a visible lead institution for heterogeneous integration as well as for testing and reliability assessment in Europe. It makes a key contribution to ensuring that the EU Chips Act will be translated into specific industrial empowerment.