Meeting a Global Demand for Chips

The world’s economy is reliant on semiconductor microchips. They are crucial for technologies driving the digital transformation, such as artificial intelligence, low power computing, 5G/6G communications, edge capabilities and Internet of Things among many others. This has led to an increase in their demand.

Production relies on an extremely complex and interdependent global supply chain which is vulnerable to obstructions caused for example by geopolitical challenges. Increased demand and disruptions in the distribution phase have resulted in an unprecedented worldwide shortage of microchips.

The European Chips Act aims to secure the EU’s supply of microchips and maintain its leadership in this area by increasing domestic production. It establishes the Chips for Europe Initiative which has the objective of supporting technological capacity building and innovation in the EU by bridging the gap between the EU’s advanced research and innovation capabilities and their industrial exploitation. The initiative will support a network of competence centres located across Europe; the European Network of Competence Centres. They will provide access to technical expertise and experimentation in the field of semiconductors, helping companies (SMEs in particular) to approach and improve design capabilities and develop skills.

What is the FiCCC?

Finland is pursuing a domestic chip competence centre in collaboration with industrial and research partners. BusinessOulu is a member of the The Finnish Chips Competence Centre (FiCCC) consortium tasked with the realisation of the project alongside Photonics Finland, Kvanttinova and New Factory (Uusi Tehdas).

The FiCCC will speed up the digitalisation of industry and other fields with the help of chip technology. The competence centre will support the development of chips that create a competitive advantage for the needs of different industries and increase the European demand for these advanced technologies.

FiCCC will be co-funded by Chips Joint Undertaking (an investment tool whose objective is to support the growth of the sector and promote EU leadership in this field in the mid to long term) and Business Finland. It aims to create a gateway for Finnish chips ecosystem to connect with the wider European ecosystem and speed up the growth and competitiveness of the Finnish and European semiconductor sector.

There are huge opportunities both locally in Oulu and nationwide across Finland to be a major player in this field. We have the capacity to strengthen the European knowledge base in two inter-related competence areas:

– High performance energy efficient and complex system-on-chip design.
– Specialised manufacturing and integration processes, including quantum technologies, MEMS, RF and optoelectronics, wide band gap semiconductors (SiC and GaN), ALD and MBE technologies.

Oulu’s Role in Shaping Finnish Chip Competence

With a rich technological history, the city of Oulu has a number of assets that can contribute to the bolstering of the microelectronics and semiconductor clusters at both a local and national level. There are a variety of dedicated companies developing or deploying either actual chips or software designed to manipulate its behaviour in nominated settings and applications. In recent years, the ecosystem of manufacturers, designers, researchers and startups has grown significantly. There is a strong mix of homegrown SMEs as well as global players attracted to the region’s capabilities in research and talent.

We work collaborators from the RadioPark project, University of Applied Sciences (OAMK), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and the University of Oulu. Additionally, our universities emphasise the production of skilled professionals in this field, and the Oulu City region has been successful in attracting significant satellite units of a few international players.

Our know-how in wireless connectivity and AI is actively contributing towards the development of innovative high-tech solutions. With the former, Oulu’s expertise and experience in this domain originates in the 1980s, making us one of the world’s leading cities in this domain. In fact, the University of Oulu is also home to the 6G Flagship Unit, conducting research that will pave the way for significant advances in this technology on a global level.

BusinessOulu’s Work in FiCCC

We aim to strengthen the startup ecosystem on a local level to ensure that all the tools and resources are in place for innovators with a potentially pioneering solution to bring it to life and give their own business the best chance possible to succeed and scaleup. As part of this work, we will endeavour to connect SMEs working in microelectronics with relevant value chain actors as well as specific funding opportunities that they could benefit from.

Want to Find Out More?

To find out more about our work as part of the FiCCC consortium, you can contact one of the following from BusinessOulu:

– Juha Ala-Mursula, Director – juha.ala-mursula@businessoulu.com
– Jussi Leponiemi, Key Account Director, ICT – jussi.leponiemi@businessoulu.com
– Niina Heikkinen, Coordinator, ICT –  niina.m.heikkinen@businessoulu.com