Shifting gears on semiconductor innovation
March 7, 2023 | Webinar on demand
Sign up here for imec’s webinar on how automotive companies can get direct access to chip prototyping and low-volume production.
Today, a car already contains up to 3,000 chips. And that number will no doubt keep on growing. Over the past two years, bottlenecks in the supply of chips limited global vehicle production by millions of units. Unprecedented supply chain disruptions resulted in calls for more investment in EU design and manufacturing capacity, and a rethink of supply chain management.
But there’s one thing even riskier than limited access to chips ... limited access to innovation.
Access to ASIC design, prototyping and low-volume manufacturing
Car manufacturers and automotive suppliers that want to differentiate their models will increasingly do so with new digital services. In order to run those as cost- and energy-efficient as possible, they need to resort to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
However, developing an ASIC is far from straightforward. Especially if this is not your core business, it can be a struggle to get your hands on the necessary tools and expertise.
Moreover, if you want to test your application, you need to prototype these ASICs, or at least manufacture them in low volumes. That’s not the kind of job that foundries are keen to take on.
And the challenge becomes even bigger when your ASIC needs advanced processing capabilities that are outside of the standard foundries’ toolbox ...
This webinar kicks off with an introduction by Nils Poel, deputy head of market affairs at CLEPA. He provides an outlook on automotive demand, on how electrification and digitalization will drive demand for chips, and how recent shortages are impacting cooperation along the supply chain. Then Luc Boschmans, program manager at imec.IC-link speaks about how automotive companies can make sure their innovation engine doesn’t falter. He introduces a model which streamlines the development of novel ASIC solutions – even in advanced technologies and including manufacturing in very small volumes, without compromising the possibility of a quick ramp-up.
For whom?
Are you active in the automotive industry and interested in its innovation potential? Then you’ll surely pick up some new insights from this webinar – whether or not you’re in a technical, commercial or executive role.
Speakers
Nils Poel has been responsible for trade, market intelligence and supply chains at CLEPA since 2019, where he currently serves as deputy head of market affairs. CLEPA represents the European automotive supply industry to policymakers and stakeholders in Brussels (EU) and Geneva (UNECE). Nils leads CLEPA’s policy advisory work on the EU Chips Act, the currently discussed new EU framework for public investment into the semiconductor industry. He started his career at the knowledge and analytics center of the Boston Consulting Group, covering the automotive supply industry, and later worked for Brunswick Group and the European Commission.
Luc Boschmans, msc, msc, mba, pmp has expertise in leading projects in quality-sensitive environments such as telecom, space (ground segment), medical (AIMD) and automotive . He also has project management expertise in setting up quality management systems (CMMI, ISO9001, IATF16949 and ISO13485). He joined imec about 5 years ago to help upgrade the imec quality system for automotive compliancy. Since then, he also managed multiple ASIC-production type of projects.