With the pan-European microelectronics R&D initiative MEDEA+ about to come to an end after 20 years in various forms, the European Union is preparing to address the question about what, if anything, succeeds it.
“We start to discuss early next year with the public authorities about a successor programme to MEDEA+,” Arthur Van der Poel, chairman of MEDEA+, told the organisation’s recent annual forum.
The main alternative approaches are what MEDEA+ calls ‘More Moore’, and ‘More than Moore’. The first approach is continued R&D into scaling technologies to push chip technology towards smaller scale processing.
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Arthur Van der Poel
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The latter is aimed a cross-technology disciplines. “There is a need to mix electronics, optoelectronics, sensors, bio-technology and pharmaceutical technology,” said Van der Poel.
The questions for a successor programme are, said Van der Poel: “Should we address European strengths or weaknesses? Should we focus on enabling technologies or application domains. How close to the market should we focus? Should there be involvement of non-Europeans?”
On one point Van der Poel’s mind is made up: Europe must innovate or see its economic strength decline. “The European social model requires economic growth, and innovation drives growth,” he said.
www.medea.org