A single European semiconductor strategy is on its way...

From Solid-State Technology:

At the International Semiconductor Strategy Symposium (ISS Europe), the European semiconductor industry affirmed its ability to innovate. More than 170 top industry representatives agreed on a number of joint steps and strategic measures to strengthen their competitiveness and sustainability. The controversial question whether the best way to attack future challenges will be "More Moore" or "More than Moore," ended in an expected compromise, namely that the industry should pursuit both strategies concurrently, the participants of a panel expressed. Whilst the More than Moore sector is traditionally strong in Europe, going on with More Moore is important for two to three device makers in Europe and in particular for the European equipment suppliers which export 80% of their products.
In a global scale, the semiconductor industry is approaching the move to 450mm wafer processing technology – a step that promises to greatly boost the productivity of semiconductor manufacturers. However, since the investment to build a 450mm fab easily exceeds the 10 billion dollar mark, this move is regarded as risky and, for this reason, reserved to only the very largest enterprises. In the past, this perspective divided the European industry into two camps - the "More Moore" group that advocates taking on the 450mm challenge, and the "More than Moore" group which shunned this risky investment and preferred to rely on application-oriented differentiation instead.
At the event SEMI Europe, an industry association embracing enterprises that represent the entire value chain and organizer of the ISS Europe, set up a high-ranking panel discussion on options and choices of a single European semiconductor strategy. The panel proved that entrepreneurial spirit is well alive among Europe's chipmakers, technology suppliers and researchers.

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