One Year of FastLane: Building a Sustainable, Competitive European Value Chain for Power Electronics

The FastLane project (Boosting the European Value Chain for Sustainable Power Electronics), launched on May 1, 2024, has successfully completed its first year of progress. Co-funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking, FastLane is a 36-month initiative with a total budget of €96,869,925, aimed at establishing a fully competitive, sustainable, and sovereign European value chain for Silicon Carbide (SiC)-based power electronics.

Led by a consortium of 29 partners from 7 European countries, FastLane is driving innovation across the entire SiC ecosystem—from advanced materials and devices to high-efficiency modules and inverters for both automotive and industrial applications.

Strong Foundations and Early Milestones

Over the past year, the project has made significant strides in key areas:

• Initial development of engineered SiC substrates with improved crystal quality and pathways for EU-based mass production.
• Progress in designing next-generation SiC MOSFET devices, addressing key limitations in performance and incorporating on-chip sensing capabilities.
• Early prototypes of power modules using innovative sintering techniques for enhanced thermal performance and reliability.
• Technical studies for the integration of high-efficiency inverters, laying the groundwork for pilot implementations in real-world use cases.

Coordinator’s Insights

Dirk BRAUER, Project Coordinator of FastLane, shared:

“We are proud of the collaboration and technical excellence demonstrated during FastLane’s first year. Our focus remains on creating a resilient and green supply chain for SiC-based electronics entirely within Europe. The results achieved so far—both in research and in forging strong industrial partnerships—set a solid foundation for the next two years of the project. Our partners are aligned not only technically, but also in their commitment to sustainability and European sovereignty. Without our great team spirit in the project, this great progress would not have been possible.”

“FastLane is more than a research initiative—it’s a strategic effort to support the European Green Deal, reduce environmental impact across the product lifecycle, and ensure long-term competitiveness in critical technology sectors.”

A Greener, More Resilient Future

Sustainability continues to be at the core of FastLane’s mission. Innovations under development are expected to:

• Reduce CO₂ emissions and water usage across manufacturing.
• Enable material reusability and improved lifespan of components.
• Deliver cost savings for end users through efficiency gains and scale effects, especially in the automotive sector.

These advances will significantly contribute to the European Green Deal and help secure Europe's technological sovereignty in the semiconductor sector.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The project is supported by the Chips Joint Undertaking (JU) and its members, including top-up funding by Austria, France, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, under grant agreement No 101139788.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Chips Joint Undertaking. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.