New Swiss chip initiative launched
Semiconductor technologies and IC design are vital for Switzerland's science and industry, but global trends like the US, China, India or the EU intensifying domestic production could harm Switzerland's position. Additionally, exclusion from EU programmes limits access to crucial research infrastructure. To counter this, the SwissChips initiative, led by ETH Zurich with its designated head Prof. Christoph Studer, aims to strengthen Swiss research collaborations in IC design and microelectronics.
Semiconductor technologies, microelectronics and the design of integrated circuits (ICs) are a key factor for science and industry in Switzerland. In the international environment, however, major economic policy players such as the USA, China, India and the EU are currently showing signs of technological decoupling trends aimed primarily at securing their own digital sovereignty. For example, both the USA in 2022 and the EU in 2023 passed new subsidy laws to boost their semiconductor production (US CHIPS Act, EU Chips Act).
This focus on domestic production can have a detrimental effect on Switzerland's current position in research and innovation in semiconductors, microelectronics and IC design. To make matters worse, the partial exclusion from the European research and innovation programme Horizon and the full exclusion from the new "Digital Europe" programme means that Swiss research and industry currently only have significantly limited access to the European research infrastructure required for innovative chip design.
In order to secure Switzerland's strong position, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microelectronics (CSEM), EPFL and ETH Zurich have launched the "SwissChips" initiative. This transitional measure will initially apply for three years (2024-2026). The costs will jointly be borne by SERI (CHF 26 million) and CSEM, EPFL and ETH (CHF 7.8 million).
ETH Zurich is responsible for the implementation of SwissChips. The designated head of the initiative is Prof. Christoph Studer, who leads the Integrated Information Processing group at our department. CSEM and EPFL are participating in the management of the initiative. SwissChips aims to promote the strong Swiss network. Its infrastructure and technology are available to all Swiss universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutions.
The ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved the implementation of the SwissChips initiative. The next step is for the ETH President and the Vice-President for Research to sign the final version of the service-level agreement and for Christoph Studer and the project partners to initiate implementation.