November 14, 2025. Many innovative companies from Europe working on edge AI technologies have so far been dependent on international supply chains. To reduce this dependency, research organizations from four EU countries – including Fraunhofer – are setting up a European pilot line for next-generation edge AI technologies.
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Edge AI applications process data where it is generated. This offers advantages for the safety and speed of AI systems and is increasingly being used in areas such as robotics, autonomous driving and medical technology. Edge AI enables real-time decision-making with very low latency. For innovative European companies, access to these advanced semiconductor technologies can be a challenge, as they are often dependent on suppliers from Asia and the USA due to a lack of in-house production capacity.
In order to enable research institutions, universities, start-ups and SMEs to develop next-generation edge AI systems in the future, the PREVAIL consortium has set up a pilot line for the production of this technology in Europe over the past two years. The aim of the four participating research institutions is to facilitate access to these future technologies and ensure Europe’s technological sovereignty.
The research and technology organizations (RTOs) involved in the PREVAIL project – CEA-Leti (France), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Germany), imec (Belgium) and VTT (Finland) – complement each other in their main areas of work. As a result, the project strengthens scientific cooperation at European level and can cover the entire range of technologies relevant to edge AI. They cover the areas of “Embedded Non-Volatile Memories”, “3D Integration” and “Silicon Photonics and Connectivity”. As part of the PREVAIL project, an early-stage technology demonstrator is being developed for each of these areas. The project partners contribute their expertise collaboratively. Each demonstrator will be worked on jointly by at least two RTOs. As an example for the topic area “3D integration”, the aim is to show how different mix-pitch connection technologies can be realized on a common silicon interposer substrate. In addition to CEA-Leti and imec, Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID and Fraunhofer EMFT are also working on this demonstrator. Four Fraunhofer Institutes from the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics and the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) are involved in the PREVAIL project:
For the practical implementation of state-of-the-art technologies, six new systems were procured at Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID alone, which are now being integrated into the existing 200/300mm process line for 2.5D/3D system integration. The participating countries and the European Commission provided a total of 155.99 million euros in funding for the establishment of the “Multi-hub Test and Experimentation Facility (TEF) for edge AI hardware”. Over 80 percent of this was invested in new equipment. This infrastructure is therefore available in particular to external partners and companies interested in edge AI technologies. The broad-based PREVAIL consortium is able to process a wide range of potential development orders. The spectrum of the pilot line ranges from design development, prototyping and hardware production in small series to validation and analysis. Interested parties can find out more at SEMICON Europa from November 18 to 21 in Munich directly from the participating RTOs or on the website https://prevail-project.eu/. Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID will be represented at the Silicon Saxony stand in Hall B1, Stand B1221-2.
(Text: Steffen Schindler)
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Photo: Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID
