This summer, France unveiled a plan to bring the electronics sector to 2030, symbolized by a megafab of semiconductors which will settle in Isère. If the ambition is real, the contours of this strategy remain unclear.
In July, Emmanuel Macron presented the Electronics 2030 plan, with a budget of 5.7 billion euros, which is part of the more global France 2030 strategy. This plan is specifically dedicated to the development of components and systems electronics, with the government’s desire to gradually move away from its chronic dependence on China. The strong announcement of recent weeks, the upcoming opening of a semiconductor production plant near Crolles in Isère, is shaking the coconut tree. A “megafab”, downright flattering on paper. But what products will come out of it? And more generally, what are France’s real ambitions in this area?
The observation: Europe is lagging behind in the global manufacture of semiconductor components
There is a shortage of chips, but also a shortage of skills from which the whole world suffers and more particularly Europe, which today represents barely less than 8% of the planetary production of semiconductors, against 20% in 2000. Today, the evidence is that three quarters of semiconductor components are manufactured in the Asia-Pacific region, that is to say in China, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan.
France will therefore devote more than 5 billion euros to the development of the electronics sector, including 800 million euros dedicated to research in this sector, 50 million euros to training, and the rest reserved for investment. in production capacity. The government considers that its plan will help increase the production capacity of electronic components by around 90% by 2026-2027.
The State has grasped the challenges of design and manufacture on European soil, semiconductors being materials used for the manufacture of components (chips) integrated into electronic systems of essential products, such as systems communications, cars, credit cards, household appliances, health equipment, defense systems, civil and military sensors or renewable energy production units, to name but a few.
A megafab in Crolles to relaunch the semiconductor business in France
In 2018, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Austria set up the Nano 2022 plan, in order to give a boost to the research, development and industrialization of components electronics in sectors such as IoT, automotive, aerospace, defense and security.
Six manufacturers are associated with this program (STMicroelectronics, Murata, Lynred, Soitec, UMS and X-FAB). The first of them, the semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics, has also set up the first production line for GaN components on silicon, for high-performance power electronics, in Tours.
The multinational, which counts Bpifrance and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance as main shareholders, is also carrying out a major project in France. In association with GlobalFoundries, the largest American chip foundry, STMicroelectronics will set up a megafab in Crolles, in Isère, which should start production in 2023. The site, which is already the largest in terms of French chip production, will thus doubling semiconductor production capacity by 2026.” It is to do in three and a half years what has been done in thirty years of history on this site “, explains Jean-Marc Chéry, boss of STMicroelectronics.
French technological solutions emerge
What will be made in this production plant? We still don’t know exactly (we tried to contact STMicroelectronics, no answer for the moment), but the Ministry of Economy and Finance told us a little more about the chips that France wants to manufacture on the territory. .
We know in particular that GlobalFoundries manufactures chips centered on FD-SOI technologies, energy efficient and found in microcontrollers, connected speakers, automotive radars or 5G smartphones. Google, for example, equips its Pixel 6 with FD-SOI chips of French technology, carried by Soitec, for its 5G transceiver in millimeter band. The component is in FD-SOI technology of 28 nanometers, licensed to STMicroelectronics, but it is manufactured by Samsung. The Isère megafab could eventually change this last detail, why not.
” STMicroelectronics will develop and industrialize the most advanced 18 nm FD-SOI technology for a European player “, confirms the ministry., which also evokes the “ development of the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing processes based on FD-SOI6 technology with a 10 nm class manufacturing process to meet the main French and European industrial needs of 2030. »
The megafab could lead to the creation of 1,000 direct jobs, in order to run this new production unit as much as possible. In addition to the 5.7 billion euros in initial financing, 10 billion euros in investments will be made in France to carry out large-scale projects and offer the country, within the framework of the future common European project (PIIEC), the world’s first industrialization of cutting-edge electronic technologies. France could thus, according to President Macron, increase its production by around 30% in the next four or five years.
Efforts supported by the European Commission
On February 8, the European Commission announced the Chips Actwhich can be summed up as the EU’s new semiconductor strategy, combining innovation, research, increased production capacity, securing supplies and pools of skills.
This Chips Act should relate to 43 billion euros of investment (public and private) to be able, in the future, to better understand the possible disruptions of the supply chains. Brussels believes that the EU could, thanks to this strategy, double the European market share of semiconductor manufacturing, to reach 20% by 2030.
Source : Government, The world
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