A consortium of 31 European electronics packaging, optics, and photonics key players; equipment suppliers; and testing experts have launched a three-year project called “Advanced packaging for photonics, optics, and electronics for low-cost manufacturing in Europe” (APPLAUSE). The project aims to foster the European semiconductor value chain by building new tools, methods, and processes for high-volume manufacturing. The €34 million total budget is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program as well as national funding agencies and industries (in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Austria, France, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland, and Israel), as a part of the Electronics Components and Systems for European Leadership joint undertaking (ECSEL JU).

“APPLAUSE will focus on advanced optics, photonics, and electronics packaging for multimodal sensing systems,” said Pieter Vandewalle, general manager of ICOS Vision Systems, the company coordinating the project. “High-volume manufacturing is supported by a strong contribution from process and process control equipment R&D. The technologies will be piloted in six use cases, each having an industrial end user.”

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

“This collaborative project builds the competitive edge of component and systems development in Europe,” said Paula Pennanen, project manager at APPLAUSE’s coordination support Spinverse. “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.”

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 project partners – which span 11 countries – are predicted to receive increases in revenue exceeding €300 million by 2025. The strategic, high-level objectives of APPLAUSE  are developing new tools, methods, and processes for automated mass manufacturing and advanced packaging for the semiconductor, optics, and photonics industries; bringing advanced packaging and high-volume manufacturing concepts to optics and photonics via six industrial use cases; and increasing the competitiveness and global market share of the European semiconductor industry, especially the manufacturing equipment, packaging, and assembly industries.