The 19th Dresden Microelectronics Academy (DMA) once again presented Dresden as Europe's most important semiconductor location.

Car factories at a standstill, delivery bottlenecks for electronic products - the year 2021 may also be remembered as the year of the chip shortage. Many headlines revolved around the supply shortages in the semiconductor industry. The economy’s reliance on one of the most important commodities of our time and the stability of supply chains suddenly became visible. The discussion about strengthening Europe as a semiconductor location and the goal of becoming more independent from Asia and North America gained significant momentum.

Infrastructure and talent

While this requires enormous investments in production infrastructure on the one hand, it also requires highly qualified specialists on the other. The summer school "Dresden Microelectronics Academy" (DMA) was founded in 2000 by Prof. Johann Bartha (Chair of Semiconductor Technology) at the TU Dresden to help raise awareness for the booming microelectronics location "Silicon Saxony" and to attract talented people who want to train here or are looking for a job in the industry. For several years now, the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) has played a key role in organizing and running the DMA.

A central, attractive focus of the weeklong event has always been the direct insights into the production halls of the major local semiconductor manufacturers. Due to the pandemic, this was no longer feasible, and last year’s DMA was therefore cancelled. This year, the partners decided to organize a completely online event and yet get as close as possible to the popular character of the classic summer school.

New co-organizer on board

The great response has confirmed this concept: With almost 60 participants, cfaed completed one of the largest editions of the DMA. Apart from the easier accessibility of an online format, a notable addition of the event partners may also have contributed to an even greater appeal: Bosch has been added to the longstanding partners Globalfoundries, Infineon and X-Fab. After the DMA partnerships were already expanded in 2018 to include the Dresden office of Bosch Sensortec for chip development with its insights into the semiconductor domain, the electronics specialist now also opened the new chip factory in Dresden this year. The wafer fab in Dresden is Bosch's first AIoT factory. This term stands for the combination of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. According to Bosch, the factory sets new standards in the field of Industry 4.0. Augmented reality (AR) is one of the technologies used at the Dresden plant - thanks to smart AR data glasses or tablets, users can have additional digital information superimposed on their real surroundings.

The keynote speech by Dr. Dirk Droste (Head of ASIC Design Center Dresden, Bosch Sensortec GmbH) "Semiconductor Industry - Beyond Textbook Physics" was one of the highlights of the program, as was the panel discussion on the topic of "Career Paths in Microelectronics", which was attended by leading representatives of all industry partners as well as Prof. Stefan Mannsfeld (cfaed / TU Dresden, Chair of Organic Devices) who gave very personal insights into their own career pathways. Yvonne Keil from the board of Silicon Saxony e.V., the local industry association, moderated the discussion. The participants were able to pick up tips for their own career planning. In general, the program led along the overall theme "From 'More Moore' to 'Beyond Moore'" and was filled with inspiring lectures, virtual tours, discussion panels and career development trainings.

Info on the 2021 participants:

• 56 participants
• 16 countries of origin
• 69 % graduate students, 15 % doctoral students, 11 % post-doc level
• 69 % male, 31% female
• Fields of study: Electrical engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, materials science.

About the DMA
The annual summer school Dresden Microelectronics Academy (DMA) is organized in cooperation of the professorships of Semiconductor Technology and Organic Devices of the TU Dresden. Partners are the companies Robert Bosch Semiconductor Manufacturing Dresden GmbH, Bosch Sensortec GmbH, Globalfoundries Dresden, Infineon Technologies Dresden GmbH & Co. KG and X-FAB Dresden GmbH & Co. KG. Since 2015, the organization of the academy has been the responsibility of the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) at TU Dresden. The event is supported by Landeshauptstadt Dresden. www.cfaed.tu-dresden.de/dma-welcome

About cfaed
The cfaed is a research cluster at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD). As an interdisciplinary research center for perspectives in electronics, it is located at TUD as a Central Academic Unit and integrates members from extramural research institutions in Saxony and Saxon-Anhalt as well as TU Chemnitz. The Cluster is dedicated to the fundamentals of sustainable information technologies that would not be possible with the continuation of today’s silicon-based components. To achieve its goals, cfaed combines the thirst for knowledge in the natural sciences with the innovative power of the engineering sciences. www.cfaed.tu-dresden.de

Media inquiries:
Prof. Johann W. Bartha
TU Dresden / Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems
Chair of Semiconductor Technology
Tel.: +49 351 463-35292

Prof. Stefan Mannsfeld
TU Dresden / Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed)
Chair of Organic Devices
Tel.: +49 351 463-39923

Matthias Hahndorf
TU Dresden / Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed)
Science communications
Tel.: +49 351 463-42847