On 18th December 2018, the European Commission approved the support of microelectronics within the IPCEI and paved the way for the promotion provided by the Federal Government with the total amount of 1 billion euros. Now companies from France, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany can be supported in their research and development activities until the first commercial use of the new microelectronic applications.
IPCEI's aim is to strengthen the microelectronic industry in Europe and Germany in the global competition. Microelectronics play a key role in the development and improvement of new technologies. The semiconductor elements make a significant contribution to the energy industry, IoT, automotive industry, autonomous driving, medicine, automation and to many other fields of application. Further participating companies from Germany are Bosch, GlobalFoundries, Infineon, Osram and Zeiss.
"The participation in IPCEI enables us to expand our technological know-how position. As a supplier in the semiconductor industry we strive to ensure innovative equipment with state-of-the-art automation for the processing of next generation semiconductor devices. In this way we want to contribute to a higher level of process performance in the semiconductor manufacturing process," explains Jörg Hildebrand, leader of the Business Unit Batch Process at AP&S.
CEO of AP&S Alexandra Laufer-Müller about the project: "We are proud to be among the participating companies. We take the role and responsibility that comes up to us seriously. IPCEI provides the basis for an exceptional exchange of knowledge and experience between the industry's innovation leaders, to the involved value chains and throughout the entire EU. I'm sure that together we will achieve the goal of expanding and securing Germany and Europe as a research and manufacturing location for the semiconductor industry of tomorrow".
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