The European microelectronics (ME) industry has a direct impact on approximately 20% of the European GDP and employs over 250,000 people, with more than 64,000 job vacancies. The main technological challenges are 1) to increase both the reliability of the manufactured electronic components and systems (ECS) and sustainability to meet the requirements of the new EU directive Right to Repair, and 2) to reduce the huge product verification effort (70% of total product development time) that represents a substantial burden on costs and resources. To compete with China and North America, the European ME industry is in critical need of cross-discipline experts in electronic manufacturing and digital innovations: software, data and artificial intelligence. The main goal of the MIRELAI industrial doctorate programme is to train the next generation of engineers and scientists for the next generation of reliable and repairable ECS developed within a trustworthy European value chain. The scientific approach is based on three pillars: 1) physics of degradation, 2) multi-scale modeling and 3) AI-based reliability which in sum will add up to a reinvention and new level of efficiency for the ‘design for repair and reliability’ for ECS. Our unique industry-academia partnership of 8 industries, 4 SMEs and 9 research organisations and academic institutions from 7 European countries has all the expertise, experience and capacity along the electronics system value chain to deliver this ambitious research and training programme. Shared hosting and joint supervision by industry and academia of each of the 13 doctoral candidates ensures optimal knowledge transfer. Together, we will pave the way for sustainable, repairable and energy efficient electronic system designs and resource-friendly smart electronics applications. MIRELAI is thus perfectly aligned with the European research agenda and the EU Pact for Skills, a shared engagement model for skills development in Europe.

HiPower 5.0 is driven by the challenges and ambitions addressed in the Green Deal and in the Chips Act, to develop new power electronics solutions to ensure Green Deal targets and to foster a resilient and leading edge all-European Value Chain, for tomorrow’s mobility solutions. Therefore, HiPower 5.0 aims for developing highly integrated eDrive components for the automotive and maritime domain using leading edge wide bandgap semiconductors and power electronics integration technologies. This includes the development of new GaN wafer materials with superior performance, first time 850 V monolithically integrated bidirectional GaN switches, enabling new topologies and unprecedented efficiency levels of 99%, as well as 1200 V GaN switches fitting the needs of 800 V battery electric vehicles. When developing these solutions, a resource-efficient and reliable design is considered to minimize CO2 footprint and extent the lifetime of power electronics components. Firstly, multi-physics simulation with its ability to model the complex interactions between electrical, thermal, electro-magnetic, and mechanical phenomena will be used. By simulating these interactions, the system design can be optimized while performances can be predicted under various operating conditions, reducing the need for prototyping, and cutting both time and costs of development. Secondly, new ageing models and prognostics concepts will be developed to finally enable an according evaluation of the set targets of the single applications. Supported by innovations in power electronics control and cooling the lifetime and reliability will be further enhanced. To achieve these targets, the HiPower 5.0 consortium is composed along the whole value chain, starting from the GaN wafer and chips development, up to automotive and maritime Tier1/OEMs. This is accompanied by leading European universities and research organizations, guaranteeing a significant economic and scientific impact of the proposed work.