On the first day of the Leti Innovation Days 2024, AIDA CCI and PCI, representing the Microelectronics Agenda, attended a plenary session full of high-level interventions and innovative insights. The participation of both organizations allowed valuable information to be gleaned from the presentations and discussions and was an opportunity for executives, opinion leaders and decision-makers from the semiconductor industry to come together and discuss the future of sustainable and reliable technologies. The event, entitled “Innovate, integrate, elevate: your fast track from lab to fab”, addressed the need for more energy and resource efficient technologies. Here are the main highlights and speakers from the session which was opened by Michael Tchagaspanian (EVP Strategic Partnerships, CEA-Leti):
- Laith Altimime (President, Semi Europe) discussed global collaborations aimed at reaching a 1 trillion dollar market by 2030;
- Fabio Gualandris (President of Quality, Manufacturing and Technology, STMicroelectronics) spoke about innovation in the semiconductor industry;
- Jean-Philippe Fricker (Founder and Chief Systems Architect, Cerebras Systems) gave a presentation on training the largest language models using Cerebras’ wafer-scale architecture;
- Sanjay Natarajan (SVP & GM, Intel) addressed the future of computing and the acceleration of innovation in Moore’s Law;
- David Anderson (President, NY CREATES) discussed semiconductor R&D centers as catalysts for innovation and national security;
- Coby Hanoch (CEO, Weebit Nano) spoke about the importance of endurance and the emergence of new non-volatile memories (NVMs).
In the afternoon session, several experts also gave their insights into the sector:
- Stefan Finkbeiner (CEO and GM, Bosch Sensortec GmbH) discussed small sensors that improve health and well-being;
- Theodore Sizer (EVP, Nokia Bell Labs) spoke about optical communications and the urgent challenges to be addressed;
- Bernhard Quendt (CTO, Thales Group) addressed key technologies for a reliable future;
- Laura Matz (CSTO, Merck) presented on how to unleash Merck’s power of innovation and the potential of a digital and data paradigm;
- Emmanuel Sabonnadière (SVP, Soitec) spoke about innovations for greener and faster technologies for the automotive industry;
- Sébastien Dauvé (CEO, CEA-Leti) discussed accelerating innovation, higher expectations and stronger collaborations.
In this session, participants discussed the challenges faced by semiconductor players, effective solutions and how technologies such as AI and dense semiconductors can be applied to future products such as cars, PCs and smartphones.
The event also featured dedicated spaces for startups, with the presentation of technological innovations and various opportunities for business meetings and discussions on innovation projects.
The Microelectronics Agenda was created as part of the mobilizing agendas of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan with the aim of strengthening the production and innovation capacity of the national semiconductor and microelectronics industry. It involves a group of 17 partners and seeks to help position Portugal at the forefront of the semiconductor management, production, distribution and recycling market, capable of supplying Europe and other countries worldwide.
The 25 new products, processes and services resulting from the Agenda aim to transform the microelectronics sector and contribute to its resilience, competitiveness and ecological sustainability, and will enable the Portuguese ecosystem to monitor and anticipate the sector’s needs.
The “Microelectronics Agenda” project runs from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024 and is co-financed on a non-repayable basis for a total eligible amount of 6.749,3749.13 by the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan through Next Generation EU.
