APPLAUSE – an ECSEL Joint Undertaking project – focuses on developing advanced packaging for photonics, optics and electronics for low cost manufacturing

October 9, 2019 – A consortium of 31 European electronics packaging, optics and photonics key players, leading equipment suppliers and testing experts launched a new project, “Advanced packaging for photonics, optics and electronics for low cost manufacturing in Europe,” simply called APPLAUSE. The project fosters the European semiconductor value chain by building new tools, methods and processes for high volume manufacturing. The 34M€ total budget for the three-year project is co-funded by Horizon 2020 and national funding agencies and industries, as a part of the Electronics Components and Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking (ECSEL JU).

The APPLAUSE project is coordinated by ICOS Vision Systems N.V. (Belgium), a division of KLA Corporation, and has partners from 11 countries, including 12 large enterprises, 11 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 8 research and technology organisations. “APPLAUSE will focus on advanced optics, photonics and electronics packaging for multimodal sensing systems. High volume manufacturing is supported by a strong contribution from process and process control equipment R&D,” says Pieter Vandewalle, General Manager of ICOS, during the project’s kickoff meeting in Leuven, Belgium on May 21. “The technologies will be piloted in six use cases, each having an industrial end user,” adds Vandewalle.

The six use cases include a substantially smaller 3D integrated ambient light sensor for mobile and wearable applications (ams AG, Austria); a high performance, low cost, uncooled thermal IR sensor for automotive and surveillance applications (IDEAS, Norway); high speed datacom transceivers with reduced manufacturing costs (DustPhotonics, Israel); a flexible cardiac monitoring patch (Precordior, Finland); miniaturized cardiac implants with advanced monitoring capabilities (Cardiaccs, Norway); and an optical water measurement module with cost-effective packaging of components (Vaisala, Finland).

“This collaborative project builds the competitive edge of component and systems development in Europe. We develop new capabilities and demonstrate their match to the future needs of European industries. This accelerates the manufacturing uptake of the new technologies and shortens time-to-market” per Paula Pennanen, project manager at Spinverse.

The expected project impacts may include an increase in revenue for the project partners, exceeding 300M€, by 2025. The new technologies developed in the project have the potential for increased market share with additional access to new market segments for the industrial partners. The strategic, high level objectives of APPLAUSE include (1) developing new tools, methods, and processes for automated mass manufacturing and advanced packaging for the semiconductor, optics and photonicsindustries, (2) bringing advanced packaging and high volume manufacturing concepts to optics and photonics via six industrial use cases, and (3) increasing the competitiveness and global market share of European semiconductor industry, especially the manufacturing equipment, packaging and assembly industries.

More information:

Moritz Stoerring, ICOS (a division of KLA Corp), APPLAUSE coordinator, info@applause-ecsel.eu

Paula Pennanen, Spinverse, APPLAUSE coordination support, info@applause-ecsel.eu

Visit the website at www.applause-ecsel.eu

Project partners:

ICOS Vision Systems N.V. (a division of KLA Corporation), Afore Oy, ams AG, Almae Technologies, Besi Austria GmbH, Besi Netherlands BV, DISCO HI-TEC EUROPE GmbH, EV Group E.THALLNER GmbH, JSR Micro NV, Pac Tech – Packaging Technologies GmbH, SEMILAB FELVEZETO FIZIKAI LABORATORIUM RESZVENYTARSASAG, VAISALA Oyj, Würth Elektronik GmbH & Co. KG, Albis Optoelectronics AG, ADVANCED PACKAGING CENTER BV, Cardiaccs AS, DustPhotonics LTD, Oy Everon Ab, Integrated Detector Electronics AS (IDEAS), Nuromedia GmbH, OSYPKA AG, Precordior OY, RoodMicrotec GmbH, Aalto University, CSEM SA, Institute of Electronics and Computer Science (EDI), Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS), Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS), Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM (IMEC), STICHING IMEC the Netherlands, University of Turku, University of South-Eastern Norway (USN).

About ECSEL JU

The “Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership” (ECSEL) is a Joint Undertaking established in June 2014 by the European Union Council Regulation No 561/2014. The ECSEL Joint Undertaking – the Public-Private Partnership for Electronic Components and Systems – funds Research, Development and Innovation projects for world-class expertise in these key enabling technologies, essential for Europe’s competitive leadership in the era of the digital economy. Through the ECSEL JU, the European industry, SMEs and Research and Technology Organisations are supported and co-financed by 30 ECSEL Participating States and the European Union. A total of approximately 346M€ European and national grants have been awarded to proposals with total eligible costs of about 748M€ arising from the ECSEL JU, making another step forward in the 5B€ programme to be supported by ECSEL JU.

Read more about the ECSEL JU programme.

Disclaimer:

Statements in this announcement other than historical facts, such as statements regarding potential future revenue, are forward-looking statements, and are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to various factors, including delays in the adoption of new technologies (whether due to cost or performance issues or otherwise), the introduction of competing products by other companies or unanticipated technology challenges or limitations that affect the implementation, performance or use of the participants’ products. For other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected and anticipated in forward-looking statements in this letter, please refer to the various parties’ most recent Annual Reports on Form 10-K (or other similar documents), and other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including, but not limited to, the risk factors described therein). The parties mentioned in this announcement assume no obligation to, and do not currently intend to, update these forward-looking statements.