News & Events

 

This is an exceptional project, the first of its kind in Lithuania, where four of the country's strongest research institutes and universities - FTMC, Vilnius University, Vilnius TECH and Kaunas University of Technology - are coming together for the common goal of boosting the growth of semiconductor industry.

 

The Centre will act as a virtual platform to help Lithuanian companies develop semiconductors. Business and industry will be able to apply with specific needs - and each of the four ChipsC² LT partners will provide services according to its own expertise. This process will be jointly coordinated by the FTMC. Using European pilot lines, state-of-the-art infrastructure and local expertise, companies will be offered customised services ranging from chip design to testing.

 

Companies in the laser and photonics sectors will also actively contribute to the development of this project.

 

 

 

Welcoming the conference participants, Prof. Dr Ramūnas Skaudžius, Director of the FTMC, said that today's presentation of ChipsC² LT is like a kind of independence day - because it marks a promising new beginning for Lithuanian science and business. It was recalled that the origins of the FTMC itself began with the development of semiconductors.

 

Dr Gediminas Račiukaitis, coordinator of ChipsC² LT and Head of the FTMC Department of Laser Technologies, presented the key highlights of the Competence Centre. Its mission is to bridge the gap between research and industry, especially for SME’s. The project will run for four years (2025-2029) and has been allocated €4 million. Half of the money is provided by Chips JU, an EU initiative to strengthen Europe's semiconductor industry and technological independence, and the other half by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Sports and Science.

 

G. Račiukaitis highlights four main strategic objectives of the project. These are enhanced technological sovereignity in critical sectors; reduced dependency on external supply chains; strenghtened position in the European technology landscape; and a support for national defence and security capabilities.

 

Dr Saulius Tumėnas, Head of the Semiconductor Optics Laboratory at the FTMC Department of Optoelectronics, explained in more detail what services will be provided to business by specialists from FTMC, VU, VILNIUS TECH and KTU. For example, they will advise companies from the very beginning of the idea to the production of the chip, test new technologies in their laboratories, help assess the suitability of semiconductors for the products they are developing, and assist in case of technical challenges.

 

 

 

According to S. Tumėnas, during the four years of the project, ChipsC² LT will also carry out skills development programs - more than 50 professional trainings, workshops, and seminars will be organised for company employees. These trainings will be highly practical and based on actual company needs.

 

Dr. Gediminas Račiukaitis, coordinator of ChipsC² LT, explains more about the upcoming launch of the project.

 

 

Partly. Officially, everything will start once we sign the agreement with our partners, but the project launch date in the document will be stated as June 2. All that is left are the formalities before the ‘real’ start. All the discussions and legal issues have been resolved and, as we know, our ChipsC² LT project has received top evaluation score from the European Commision.

 

Of course, there will be some challenges in the beginning to get all partners to work for the common goal and not just in our own small areas. The other thing is how to reach Lithuanian companies to get them interested in the Chips Competence Centre. So building the scientific and business community to trust us is very important here. That is why we are inviting professionals who already know us and have a wide range of contacts to join us in this project. If we build a strong community and have a good idea, everything will work.

 

 

 

 

The need is certainly great. We need original chips for a wide range of applications - the most striking example of this would be drones and similar technologies, where we are moving away from Chinese electronics and have to develop our own, to find solutions that add value.

 

It is important for us (FTMC, VU, VILNIUS TECH and KTU), as research institutes, to ‘sell’ our knowledge and develop it as much as possible, to adapt to the industry's needs, and to understand which way to go. It is very important to be in tune.

 

Another big question is competence. We can prepare a lot of programs, but will we have enough people to implement them? On the other hand, we have seen time and again (for example, in the physical sciences) when students flock together when a new idea comes up. One of these was the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Lithuania, and new study programs were even created for this purpose. The power plant project failed, but the promising students stayed in physics - and went elsewhere after graduation. There are some amazing laser scientists from that generation.

 

The same with the Chips Competence Centre - if we have a good idea, more people will go into semiconductors. I did it myself when I was a student, because semiconductors were big at the time. And laser science was just taking its first steps...

 

 

Today's conference is about that. Some Lithuanian semiconductor companies are currently taking part in another big event in Switzerland, but we are happy to have business representatives here too. And this is just the beginning - we will arrange the right times, we will run pilot lines, so that businesses come to us and our partners and see what we can do. We will also engage chip competence centers from other countries that are relevant to us.

 

Once we launch the project, the system will definitely work – and later it can be adjusted as needed. Everything is already on the right track.