Success Story in Carinthia
Carinthian Start-up Gomeon Is First Client for AT-C3
Gomeon, based in Klagenfurt, aims to power the smallest devices directly from smartphones while maximizing energy efficiency. The new chip competence center led by SILICON ALPS has found its flagship project in the Carinthian company.
Project support
Lukas Lassbacher, Head of Business Unit AT-C3, plans to implement 60 projects with startups and small and medium-sized enterprises through the new AT-C3 (Austrian Chips Competence Center) competence center, based in Graz, over the next four years.
Preishuber-Pflügl has been a pioneer in this field of technology for more than 30 years.
Together with Silicon Austria Labs (SAL), based in Villach, Graz, and Linz, the company is developing new antennas for passive NFC tags. The potential of this technology in industry and logistics is said to be significant. Gomeon’s primary goal is to optimize NFC technology—for example, by extracting as much energy as possible from a cell phone to power very small devices. This makes it possible, for instance, to activate locks via a cell phone or read data from sensors using a smartphone. Seven people currently work for Gomeon.
European Chips Act Implemented
Since the beginning of the year, companies have been able to submit their project ideas on microelectronics topics to the Austrian Chips Competence Center, says Lassbacher. Eighty percent of the project costs are funded, while the company must contribute the remaining 20 percent. The center sees itself as an interface for companies and provides low-threshold access to tools and services.
The AT-C3 consortium is led by six renowned domestic research organizations— AIT, Graz University of Technology, SAL, MCL, PCCL, and SILICON ALPS—are part of the SILICON ALPS Cluster. Its director, Robert Gfrerer, sees the AT-C3 – which has been allocated eight million euros over four years—as a milestone: “Microelectronics is the foundation of all future technologies and is also a central component of Austria’s industrial strategy.”
The AT-C3 demonstrates how the European Chips Act is being implemented in Austria with direct benefits for companies.
(c) KLZ // Peter Rass
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