Technologies
While silicon (Si) remains the traditional foundation of electronics, current demands for energy efficiency, power, and miniaturization necessitate new architectures. From custom chips (ASIC, FPGA) to next-generation semiconductors (GaN, SiC), ASTEERICS guides you in selecting the technology best suited to your product.
ASIC — Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
The ultimate sovereignty technology
The ultimate sovereignty technology
An ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is a circuit designed for a specific function. Unlike generic components, it is optimized for the final product, resulting in significant gains in performance, power consumption, and unit cost at scale.
Up to 80% off
×10
Low to high volume
Very high
Embedded IoT
Defense & Aerospace
Medical
Automotive
Telecom
IA edge
- Maximum performance for the intended use
- Very low energy consumption
- Competitive unit cost at high volumes
- Robust IP protection, difficult to copy
- High development cost
Long time-to-market (~2 years) - Irreversible once manufactured
- Requires specialized expertise
The ASIC is the ultimate building block of sovereignty: mastering one’s silicon means mastering the heart of the product. It offers reduced dependence on external suppliers, enhanced protection against copying, and the ability to secure the supply chain.
GaN — Gallium Nitride
Wide-bandgap semiconductor — high frequency and high power
Wide-bandgap semiconductor — high frequency and high power
GaN is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material. It enables very high-frequency switching with minimal losses, making it ideal for compact power converters and high-power RF applications.
3,4 eV
Up to the GHz range
>98%
×3 vs Si
Fast chargers
5G & radar
Defense
EV charging stations
Server power supplies
Aeronautics
- Very high power density
- Ultra-fast switching
- Exceptional energy efficiency
- Miniaturization of power systems
- Higher substrate cost than Si
- Reliability still undergoing standardization
- Specialized design expertise
Fewer qualified suppliers
GaN is strategic for defense (radar, jamming) and the energy transition. European players (NXP, Infineon) are developing their expertise in the technology. Promoting GaN means building a power electronics sector that is independent of other players.
SiC — Silicon Carbide
Wide-bandgap semiconductor — very high voltage and temperature
Wide-bandgap semiconductor — very high voltage and temperature
SiC is a wide-bandgap material designed for extreme environments—high voltage, high temperature, and high current. It is at the heart of electric vehicle inverters and fast-charging infrastructure.
Up to 10 kV
250 °C
÷100 vs Si
÷3 vs IGBT
Electric vehicles
Solar energy
Rail
Heavy industry
Aeronautics
Smart grid
- Withstands extreme voltages and temperatures
- Very low switching losses
- Longer service life than Si
Ideal for electric mobility
- Expensive and difficult-to-produce substrate
- Crystal defects still frequent
Less mature tooling design
STMicroelectronics and Soitec are investing heavily in SiC in Europe. Mastering this material is critical for the energy transition and electromobility—two sectors where technological dependence poses a systemic risk.
FPGA — Field-Programmable Gate Array
Reconfigurable circuit — flexibility and prototyping
Reconfigurable circuit — flexibility and prototyping
An FPGA is a circuit whose logic can be reprogrammed after manufacturing. It offers maximum flexibility for prototyping, small-batch production, or applications requiring frequent updates. It is often used as a stepping stone before transitioning to an ASIC.
Very short
All-you-can-eat
Weak
Unit cost
ASIC Prototyping
Telecom
Defense and Intelligence
Machine vision
HPC
Aerospace
Cryptography
Quantum
- Reprogrammable, highly flexible
- Very short implementation time
- No non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs for manufacturing
- Ideal for validation prior to ASIC implementation
- Prohibitive unit cost for high-volume production
- Higher power consumption than an ASIC
- Lower performance than a dedicated ASIC
- Dependence on Intel (Altera) or AMD (Xilinx), presumably…
The FPGA market has historically been dominated by a few major US players, yet European solutions are worth exploring. However, a coherent approach would be to use the FPGA as a stepping stone, then evaluate a transition to an ASIC once product maturity and volumes justify it, in order to gain in performance, reduce unit costs, and achieve technological independence.
ASSP — Application-Specific Standard Product
Semi-custom circuit — between ASIC and generic component
Semi-custom circuit — between ASIC and generic component
An ASSP is a circuit designed for a specific application area but marketed to multiple customers. It offers a good compromise between the performance of an ASIC and the accessibility of a standard component, without the development costs of a fully custom circuit.
Yes
Partial
Average
Risk
Ethernet / Wi-Fi
Battery management (PMIC)
Audio and video codec
IoT sensors
USB/PCIe
- Non-recurring engineering costs (NRE) shared among multiple customers
- Available sooner than an ASIC
- Market-proven, reduced risk
- Good entry point for SMEs
- Less differentiating than a proprietary ASIC
- Features fixed by the vendor
- Ongoing supply chain dependency
- Limited scope for customization
An ASSP can serve as a stepping stone toward an ASIC. For an SME that lacks the volume or expertise for a fully proprietary chip, it represents an intermediate step that allows for increased maturity while keeping an eye on future sovereignty.