The Design Platform consortium, comprising twelve European research organisations and universities, has been established to create a platform that brings together a comprehensive range of tools and services to support semiconductor chip development.
The Design Platform is part of the EU’s Chips for Europe initiative, seeking to advance innovations and technological capabilities in the semiconductor sector across Europe.
The Chips for Europe initiative was launched to especially support European start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which may lack the resources to design and manufacture semiconductor chips independently.
Funding under the initiative has already been awarded for the construction of five extensive pilot lines for chip production, with Tampere University and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland as the only Finnish partners involved. The five pilot lines being provided are: 1nm logic, low-power FDSOI, heterogeneous system integration (chiplet assembly), photonic ICs and wide-bandgap materials (power and RF).
Now, the Design Platform project has been initiated to provide a design service that supports these pilot lines.
The project consortium will define and develop a cloud-based service that integrates all chip design tools, allowing companies, especially those that cannot afford these tools, to test and experiment with them. The consortium is also responsible for coordinating and steering the platform’s development as well as establishing criteria for awarding funding for chip design efforts under the Chips from Europe initiative.
“The Design Platform is a pivotal new initiative for both the University and companies in the semiconductor sector and will substantially lower the threshold for IT and electronics companies to start their own chip design activities,” said Timo Hämäläinen, Professor of Computer Engineering and Principal Investigator overseeing the project at Tampere University.
The primary goal of the Design Platform is to bolster the chip design ecosystem within the EU.
The European Chips Act was adopted in 2023 to strengthen Europe’s internal semiconductor ecosystem and through the act, the EU aims to foster the development of the semiconductor industry, attract investments, advance research and innovations, and increase the EU’s self-sufficiency in semiconductor chip production. The objective is to double the EU’s share of global chip production by 2030.
Tampere University is the only Nordic member in the project consortium consisting of 12 partners and is responsible for raising awareness of the Design Platform and the opportunities it offers across the EU.
“Participating in this major European partnership enables us to share our knowledge internationally while also bringing new expertise to Finland. As the sole Finnish partner, Tampere University has an important responsibility to ensure the Finnish semiconductor industry is actively involved as the EU strives for greater semiconductor self-sufficiency,” said Jarmo Takala, Vice President at Tampere University.
