Big four research institutes partner to make European edge AI

Feature articles | February 27, 2024

By Peter Clarke

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Europe’s four leading deep technology research institutes – IMEC, Leti , Fraunhofer and VTT – are accepting design proposals to prototype edge AI technologies using their facilities.

The four European Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) have set up a consortium with €156 million of funding to build on their 300mm fabrication, design, and test facilities in a coordinated and complementary fashion. The project goes by the name PREVAIL standing for Partnership for Realization and Validation of AI hardware Leadership.

Installing equipment

The consortium said it is now installing cleanroom tools and gearing up to design, evaluate, test and fabricate circuit designs from across Europe. In most cases, the technology offer will be based on commercial foundry processes, and advanced technology modules will be enhanced in the cleanrooms of the project partners.

To help achieve leading-edge design the PREVAIL consortium offers embedded non-volatile memory, 3D chiplet-style packaging for heterogenous designs and photonics connectivity. The memory options include MRAM, OxRAM and Ferroelectric RAM.

“And while bringing their cutting-edge technologies to a higher maturity level and giving users the possibility to fabricate and test AI prototypes based on these technologies, the RTOs are reaping the benefits of technological cross-fertilization,” said Sergio Nicoletti, CEA-Leti business development manager and PREVAIL project manager, in a statement.

Taxpayers’ money

The project was launched at the end of 2022 with a 42-month term and a budget of €156 million. Half of the budget is provided by the European Union and half is coming from the four member states; France, Belgium, Germany and Finland.

Interestingly 86 percent of the budget is allocated to capital expenditure and 6 percent to manufacturing demonstration circuits. That leaves about 8 percent of the funds for administration and marketing.

Nicoletti said the consortium is working with selected small companies, the RTOs’ industrial partners and academic labs to prepare early designs that will be used to test fabrication equipment in the RTOs’ facilities.

The names of the SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprieses) selected so far was not released but the project plans to open access widely to EU designers by May 2026.