Leti, a research institute of CEA Tech, and Soitec, a manufacturer of semiconductor materials, announced a new collaboration and five-year partnership agreement to drive the R&D of advanced engineered substrates. The agreement includes the launch of a prototyping hub. The Substrate Innovation Center will feature access to shared Leti-Soitec expertise around a focused pilot line. Partners will have access to early exploratory sampling and prototyping, collaborative analysis, and early learning at the substrate level, eventually leading to streamlined product viability and road map planning at the system level. Chip makers and foundries worldwide use Soitec products to manufacture chips for consumer applications targeting performance, connectivity, and efficiency with extremely low energy consumption. Applications include smartphones, data centers, automotive, imagers, and medical and industrial equipment. At the Substrate Innovation Center, located on Leti’s campus, Leti and Soitec engineers will explore and develop substrate features, expanding to new fields and applications with a special focus on 4G/5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, sensors and display, automotive, photonics, and edge computing.