The three Fraunhofer Institutes IIS, ENAS and IZM have launched a research initiative in Dresden: the Chiplet Center of Excellence (CCoE). Together with industry, they want to drive forward the introduction of chiplet technologies. To this end, workflows and methods for electronics design, the implementation of demonstrators and the evaluation of reliability are initially being developed for the automotive industry.
Electronics solutions based on chiplets enable the integration of different functional units, even in different technologies, on one substrate or in a 3D chip structure. This allows the most suitable production technologies to be used. Today, the use of chiplets for mass-produced applications is economical and is primarily used by US companies in the data center sector. However, proprietary standards are used for this. Implementation with chiplets from different sources for product groups in small and medium quantities has so far been largely excluded from this.
According to the head of the Chiplet Center of Excellence, Andy Heinig, chiplets will play an important role for the global semiconductor industry in the coming years, as this technology offers the greatest degree of freedom in the customized design of electronic systems. To achieve this, the European economy needs a coordinated roadmap for the development of its own products and the use of chiplets. To enable companies to assess the feasibility of system solutions based on chiplets at an early stage, the newly founded center will focus on the entire spectrum of requirements and boundary conditions for the products and develop practical workflows and new methods for evaluation.
In the first two years, the center will focus on applications in automotive electronics. To this end, various key partners along the value chain will be brought together - from car manufacturers to semiconductor producers. The researchers want to develop methodical approaches, architecture concepts, reusable basic components and roadmaps for the development, production and assembly of chiplets. In addition, they will evaluate various chiplet solutions at the center in terms of their performance, costs and reliability. Research results are to be incorporated into international standardization and contribute to the design of a cross-manufacturer chiplet ecosystem.
The Dresden branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (EAS), the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM and its All Silicon System Integration Dresden (ASSID) branch and the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS are responsible for the Center. Interested companies that want to participate in the CCoE's pre-competitive work and help shape the research agenda can join the center until autumn 2024.
