The global market for semiconductors is in flux. While sophisticated chip designs for artificial intelligence applications are driving up stock market values, production facilities and supply chains are being reorganized worldwide, often promoted by political programs. The importance and opportunities of this industry for Europe, Germany and Baden Württemberg were the focus of discussions at the KIT Business Club fireside evening on 24 September 2024. What challenges and solutions are there? Almost 30 guests, including representatives from 12 companies and four KIT institutes, discussed this in the TRIANGEL Open Space under the direction of Prof. Thomas Hirth.

Europe, and therefore also Germany, can cover a significant share of the value chain for semiconductor products, particularly in the areas of production technologies, manufacturing plants and materials, emphasized Prof. Mehdi Tahoori from the Institute of Computer Engineering for Computer Engineering (ITEC) at KIT. In other areas, however, Europe has lost importance. The design and development of semiconductor products and algorithms, as well as the actual production often take place in Asia or North America. The construction of new production facilities in the EU is now supported by the state. According to Prof. Mehdi Tahoori, the promotion of skills in the field of chip development and design is at least as important in order to meet increasingly specific customer needs and performance requirements.

The development of talents, skills and the promotion of young talent, as will take place, for example, as part of the virtual KIT Chipdesign House for Baden-Württemberg, is essential. Prof. Ahmet Ulusoy from the Institute of Radio Frequency Engineering and Electronics (IHE) and co-founder of milli-IC also sees market potential with chips “designed in Baden-Württemberg” and showed examples of the close cooperation between industry, science and spin-offs in this field.

At the Fireside evening, the industry representatives in attendance focused on future technical challenges facing the sector. Dr. Markus Simon from Physik Instrumente (PI) sees not only increasing demands on manufacturing accuracy but also a trend towards the ever-increasing integration of electronic and photonic technologies. Dr. Axel Kaschner from Bosch semiconductor division named a whole series of current challenges in the industry: the trend towards modular processors consisting of so-called chiplets in the automotive sector, the miniaturization of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and energy optimization in power electronics. Regulatory issues also play a role for the semiconductor industry.

At the end of the keynote speeches, the founding team Desoltik from the wbk Institute for Production Science took up another question: Despite rapid performance development in the chip sector, is there also a second life for disused semiconductors? With their spin-off company for disassembly and performance diagnostics for used chips, the team wants to prove that a second use makes sense both for reasons of sustainability and to mitigate supply bottlenecks.

As a conclusion of the event, the following remained in the minds of the guests: In order to master the many challenges mentioned and to develop the entire value chain, Germany needs the necessary skills and capable specialists in the field of semiconductor design and development. New qualification programs, degree courses and initiatives such as the virtual KIT Chipdesign House play a major role in this. The discussion at the fireside evening strengthened awareness of the necessary changes, but it remains to be seen to what extent these national activities will be sufficient to achieve a global turnaround towards more chips “made in BW”.