Catalunya formalizes InnoFAB board for €398m chip center

TL;DR

• The Generalitat de Catalunya formalized the board of the InnoFAB Foundation on Monday to manage Catalonia’s first advanced chip design and prototyping center.
• InnoFAB has a total planned investment of €398 million and will be built at Parc de l’Alba in Cerdanyola del Vallès on a 22,000 square meter site next to the Alba Synchrotron.
• The Spanish government also authorized a €60,000 contribution to the OECD Semiconductor Informal Exchange Network (SIEN).

The Generalitat de Catalunya formalized the board of the non-profit InnoFAB Foundation on Monday to manage Catalonia’s first advanced chip design and prototyping center. Núria Montserrat, Catalonia’s minister for Research and Universities, will chair the body. The event also included Alícia Romero, Albert Dalmau and Miquel Sàmper.

InnoFAB has a total planned investment of €398 million, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya with €193 million, the Government of Spain through PERTE Chip with €60 million, and a complementary loan of €145 million. The facility will be located at Parc de l’Alba in Cerdanyola del Vallès, on a 22,000 square meter plot adjacent to the Alba Synchrotron. The center will focus on advanced chip prototyping using materials other than silicon for health, energy and electronics applications.

The project is in the technical deployment phase. After the basic engineering contract was awarded to IDP last December for €2.6 million, the basic engineering proposal is scheduled for April 2024, and the final construction project and executive works contract are scheduled for award in summer 2025. The site is planned to include a 2,000 square meter clean room, a four-story fabrication building, laboratories and offices, and the project is expected to create about 200 direct high-skill jobs.

Separately, Spain’s Council of Ministers authorized the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) to contribute €60,000 to the OECD Semiconductor Informal Exchange Network (SIEN). According to the source, the contribution will support Spain’s participation in a multilateral technical and strategic forum on semiconductors and dialogue with countries including the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Related questions

• What is InnoFAB and where will it be built?
• How much funding has been allocated to the InnoFAB project?
• What facilities and jobs are planned at the InnoFAB site?
• What is Spain’s €60,000 OECD SIEN contribution for?