An ams Osram semiconductor cleanroom. [Image: ams Osram]
The Austria- and Germany-based worldwide photonics firm ams Osram announced on 20 September that it expects to receive “substantial public funding” of more than €300 million (US$320 million) over the next five years from the German federal government and the German Free State of Bavaria. The money will reportedly be used to boost the company’s development and manufacturing capabilities in “next-generation optoelectronic semiconductor technologies” at its facilities in the central Bavarian city of Regensburg.
German state aid for “Common European Interest”
The new funding comes under the rubric of an “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI), a vehicle under the European Union’s overall industrial strategy. Among other things, the IPCEI designation allows the relaxation of some EU competitive restrictions on internal state aid to companies for projects that promise substantial cross-border, Europe-wide benefits.
The €300 million in newly announced funding specifically falls under the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communications Technologies (IPCEI ME/CT), unveiled this past June. The euros will come partly from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and partly from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy.
The IPCEI framework is intended particularly for projects in emerging green-technology and digital-technology spheres, reflecting key EU priorities. Mindful of that, ams Osram CEO Aldo Kamper, in a press release announcing the funding, emphasized that the firm’s Regensburg location creates “new, energy-efficient products and production processes to drive digitalization and thus support the European Green Deal and the autonomy of Europe in the field of semiconductors.”
Investment targets
ams Osram says it plans to use the IPCEI funding to boost R&D activities in “innovative optoelectronic semiconductors and their manufacturing processes.”
On a more nuts-and-bolts level, ams Osram says it plans to use the IPCEI funding to boost R&D activities in “innovative optoelectronic semiconductors and their manufacturing processes.” Specific spending will include investments in new cleanroom and lab facilities and pilot lines. The company said it also expected to create “400 new high-tech jobs” through the work covered by the funding.
ams Osram cited various “innovative applications” such as UV-C LEDs for disinfection, NIR emitters for automotive lidar, Industry 4.0 and microLEDs as possible foci of R&D activity. And, in a nod to the spirit of the times, the firm mentioned artificial intelligence as another way for ams Osram to “break new ground.”
Tilting toward semiconductors
Since the creation of ams Osram in July 2020, through the merger of the Austrian electronics firm ams AG and the German lighting firm Osram, the combined entity has rapidly divested itself of a variety of “non-core” assets in traditional lighting sectors to focus more on growth sectors in high-tech illumination, visualization and sensing. It has increasingly focused in particular on opportunities in the semiconductor marketplace, a focus highlighted in Kamper’s remarks.
“By expanding our development activities in the field of optoelectronic semiconductors, we can create room for innovation and accelerate the time to market for our products,” Kamper said in the release. He went on to stress that the effort to secure the public subsidy funding signaled a “clear commitment to Regensburg as an industrial hub, Bavaria as a high-tech location, and Europe as a hotbed of innovation.”
Some 2,700 of the company’s 21,000 worldwide employees work at the Regensburg location, which ams Osram characterizes as “the most important research and production site for optoelectronic semiconductors in Europe.”
