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CEA‑Leti, a leading European research institute for microelectronics, reaffirmed its long‑standing collaboration with GlobalFoundries (GF), whose ongoing participation in the FAMES Pilot Line as an end user is advancing more than two decades of joint work on fully depleted silicon‑on‑insulator (FD‑SOI) technology and reinforcing Europe's leadership in energy‑efficient, sovereign semiconductors. Funded by the European Commission and participating Member States under the Chips JU, FAMES continues to accelerate the early‑stage research shaping the next generation of FD‑SOI.
The FAMES Pilot Line is designed to accelerate early‑stage research and development in advanced semiconductor technologies, with a strong focus on energy efficiency, sustainability and European technological resilience. Industrial participation plays a key role in ensuring that research activities are informed by real‑world application needs.
CEA‑Leti and GF have partnered for more than two decades on PD‑SOI and FD‑SOI technologies across multiple technology generations. Their long‑standing cooperation has contributed to the maturation of FD‑SOI as a differentiated technology option for applications requiring an optimized balance of performance, power efficiency and cost.
Leveraging GF’s FDX™ Platform
One outcome of this partnership is GF’s FDX platform, introduced in 2018 and developed at GF’s Dresden, Germany site. Based on FD‑SOI technology, GF’s 22FDX delivers performance comparable to 14/16nm FinFET nodes for many workloads, while enabling lower power consumption and inherent radiation tolerance. These characteristics make it well‑suited for a broad range of applications, including mobile and consumer devices, automotive microcontrollers, satellite communications, edge AI and emerging computing architectures.
FD‑SOI technologies have also been adopted in demanding environments, including space and other high‑reliability applications, where power efficiency, variability control and robustness are critical.
GF’s participation in the FAMES Pilot Line, as an end user of its early‑stage research, is focused on advancing FD‑SOI capabilities. This includes exploratory work on device enhancements, as well as collaboration on next‑generation substrate innovations, including strained silicon concepts developed within the framework of FAMES and in related programs involving Soitec. These efforts are intended to extend the performance and energy efficiency of FD‑SOI for future application needs.
FAMES Is Key to Strengthening Europe’s Chip Industry
“The FAMES Pilot Line is a cornerstone of Europe’s strategy to strengthen semiconductor research and innovation,” said Sébastien Dauvé, Chief Executive Officer of CEA‑Leti. “Through joint innovation with GlobalFoundries, we accelerate early‑stage FD‑SOI research while maintaining a clear focus on long‑term innovation, sustainability and European technological sovereignty.”
Beyond next-generation FDX devices, GF and CEA-Leti are leveraging the FAMES Pilot Line to advance a broader set of FDX- based programs spanning RF design for 5G/6G power amplifiers, embedded non-volatile memory that will address compute-in-memory for edge AI, ultra-low-power bio-medical wearables, and cybersecure components. Both GF and CEA-Leti also see FAMES as a natural path toward 3D heterogeneous integration on future FDX generations, reinforcing FD-SOI as Europe's most versatile platform for sovereign, energy-efficient silicon.
“GlobalFoundries has a long history of collaboration with CEA‑Leti on FD‑SOI technologies,” said Manfred Horstmann, General Manager and Senior Vice President at GlobalFoundries. “Being an end user of the FAMES Pilot Line reflects our strong interest in early‑stage FD‑SOI research and in supporting Europe’s semiconductor research ecosystem.”
FD‑SOI is widely recognized as a European‑led technology, built through sustained cooperation between research institutes and industry. Through initiatives such as the FAMES Pilot Line, CEA‑Leti and its partners continue to advance foundational technologies that support long‑term competitiveness, energy‑efficient computing and European technological sovereignty.
