Here it comes the semiconductor metaverse

During Imec Future Summit, last May, the semiverse project was launched: a semiconductor metaverse. This platform could represent a concrete opening on which to invest today in order not to be forced to a new violent slowdown tomorrow. The level of innovation in the sector continues to rise dramatically and we may soon reach a condition where the current system will no longer be able to hold up. The semiconductor metaverse thus becomes a solution to respond to the great need to optimize time, raw materials and costs and to increase the pace of production and technological transformation.

Current semiconductors have a very complex composition. To make them, countless different components are required. The production is extremely articulated. It is necessary to develop tools for growing wafers, for creating individual transistors, for cutting chips, for packaging and assembly. Multiple suppliers are involved in this system. Everyone is called to innovate and improve their production. However, there is no coordination that checks that the individual evolutionary steps are related to those carried out in the rest of the supply chain.

The demi-universe should do just that: to coordinate efforts and innovations. It is described as “a hybrid, physical and virtual environment, in which development and testing are carried out as a joint human-machine enterprise, in which everyone actually does what they do best”. It will make possible to speed up and enhance the many collaborations in the supply chain, triggering the necessary acceleration that is currently so difficult to achieve. The semiconductor metaverse would makes possible to design and develop new solutions more easily, favouring brain storming and speeding up the steps and approvals.

The semiconductor metaverse would become the largest semiconductor laboratory. Anyone could access and use it from anywhere on Earth without moving or hardware costs. It would give the opportunity to test new ideas at low cost and virtually experiment with new processes, before putting them into production. It would also lead to a significant reduction in the time between the design and commercialization of new solutions.