Two EU research projects on semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence receive 130 million in funding.
Infineon Technologies Austria, a subsidiary of the German chip manufacturer Infineon, is starting work today on two European research projects: The “ALL2GaN” project is about manufacturing energy-efficient chips made of gallium nitride (GaN). “AIMS5.0” aims to use artificial intelligence to strengthen supply chains in Europe and enable resource-efficient manufacturing across industries.
According to the chipmaker, 130 million euros will be made available to implement both research projects. Ninety-eight partners from 18 countries are involved in the projects, each of which will run for three years, it said. In addition to grants from industry, they are financed by subsidies from the participating countries and from the EU’s “Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking” research program.
Gallium nitride chips: more powerful and flexible in use
45 partners from twelve countries are involved in “ALL2GaN” (Affordable smart GaN IC solutions for greener applications), with a budget of around 60 million euros. The aim of the project is to save as much energy as possible with the aid of power semiconductors based on gallium nitride. Thanks to their flexibility, GaN semiconductors can be used in many areas, from e-mobility to renewable energies and telecommunications. Infineon-Villach estimates that the energy-saving chips could reduce energy consumption by up to 30 percent in various applications and save up to 218 million tons of CO2 globally. The two projects are thus also expected to make an important contribution to achieving the EU’s climate targets.
In the past, a research project led by Infineon already succeeded in producing smaller GaN chips and thus consuming fewer materials and resources, according to the company.
Photo: iStock/crstrbrt
