Today, on a live broadcast on BBC World News Business Report, Luc Van den Hove, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at IMEC confirmed SEMI Europe’s position that actions are required to keep Europe’s semiconductor industry competitive.
 
The interview was arranged by SEMI Europe, the global association representing the equipment and material suppliers to the semiconductor industry, as part of their campaign to communicate to a wider audience the importance of maintaining semiconductor manufacturing in Europe. “Discussing the critical semiconductor issue among ourselves and the EU is no longer enough, we need to reach out to a larger audience. ” said Heinz Kundert, President of SEMI Europe. “Everyone understands an airplane and a car, but not a semiconductor. Yet, it is these that are driving the innovation.”

Luc Van den Hove said during the interview that “To keep Europe competitive, the entire semiconductor ecosystem needs to remain in Europe. Not only state-of-the-art research programs as offered by research centers such as IMEC. Also the complete value chain including manufacturing which is now moving more and more to Asia and US needs to stay in Europe. In this way, the European industry can have cost- and time-efficient access to the critical semiconductor technologies.”.

IMEC, is a leading global research center working on semiconductor technologies and innovative semiconductor-based solutions to tackle societal issues such as climate change, energy conservation, renewable energy, security and healthcare.

Data from Future Horizons, a UK-based semiconductor industry analyst firm, showed Europe had managed to maintain its world market share at around 12 percent over the past 30 years despite increasingly intense global competition, Initially from the US, then Japan, Korea and now SE Asia.  “This reflects both Europe’s ongoing world leadership in chip technology and application and its pioneering partnership and risk-sharing initiatives,” commented Malcolm Penn, Future Horizons’ Chairman & CEO.  Their analysis concluded that the chip firm’s Achilles’ heel was Europe’s increasingly uncompetitive manufacturing infrastructure.  “The R&D and chip may represent only 20 percent of the system cost but they are 100 percent of the functionality and holistically inseparable from a manufacturing perspective.  The chip must follow the system … this is a very serious threat to Europe’s chip industry” warns Penn.

About SEMI
SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) is the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic industries. SEMI member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our lives. This sector employs around 105 000 direct jobs in Europe, 500 000 indirect jobs, in a market valued at around EUR 9 billion for Europe alone. SEMI has over 2,000 member companies worldwide.

Recent lobbying activities towards the EU to increase Europe’s competitiveness in the semiconductor industry include the release of the SEMI White Paper (www.semi.org/europewhitepaper) and various discussions with the European Commission.

Keywords : Industry News, World, IMEC confirms SEMI Europe’s call for action

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