Research & Innovation

SHIFT project
Monday, 23 February 2026 10:51
SHIFT project

Overview

  • FRAMEWORK: HORIZON EUROPE KDT
  • TITLE : SHIFT – Sustainable tecHnologies enablIng Future Telecommunication applications
  • TOPIC : SHIFT project will bring together European and world leaders in the manufacturing of Silicon and GaN-based semiconductors, terrestrial and space telecommunications systems, and renowned laboratories and academic partners. Thus, SHIFT will guarantee a high technical and scientific level, as well as the adequacy of activities and results with respect to the requirements of the fields covered by SHIFT partners and their markets.
  • OBJECTIVES : The SHIFT project supported by 43 partners, European public research and academic organizations, and private industry leaders, aims to make important contributions to both green and digital transitions, through innovations in component and system technologies for advanced telecommunications. SHIFT will develop innovative semiconductor and packaging technologies and their validation with demonstrators for telecommunication areas such as 5GNR (Beyond 5G) and 6G wireless network access and backhaul, ultrahigh-speed optical links between servers, satellite telecommunications, and Earth observation.

OFFICIAL START DATE : 2022/12/01 DURATION : 4 years

ABSTRACT

  • SHIFT project will cover innovative semiconductor and packaging technologies and their validation with demonstrators for telecommunication areas such as B5G (Beyond 5G) and 6G wireless network access and backhaul, ultra-high speed optical links for servers, satellite telecommunications, and Earth observation. SHIFT will also contribute to environmental and societal concerns, with an analysis of the life cycle of telecommunications products, through the manufacturing chain, their operational use, and their recycling. Finally, the SHIFT project tends to respond to Europe's desire for sovereignty in semiconductors, by accelerating the development and dissemination of the latest European technologies, allowing many young engineers and researchers to train, and thus enable future ambitious and sustainable development of innovative companies in Europe.

SIAE Activities in SHIFT Project

  • SIAE with the project partners will work both on the development of a new solution of advanced mm-wave components conceived for high-capacity communications, and to develop a Ka-band transmitting phased array tile for SatCom applications.

WP3 Task3.1

Demonstrator: E- and D-band Phased Array Antenna Modules for 5G backhaul

  • SIAE SIAE demonstrator is dedicated to the development of advanced mm-wave components conceived for high-capacity communications. The components to be developed namely are the Antenna-in-Package (AiP), targeting to E-band (71–86 GHz), and the Antenna-in-Module (AiM), addressing D-band (110–175 GHz). Moreover, the key building blocks of an IC that will work as digital frontend (DFE) will be developed. The goal is to optimize the signal to be transmitted through the AiP and AiM. The AiP and AiM stem from high-level objectives to match and exceed future needs for wireless point-to-point (P2P) mobile transport such as:
    • develop D-band RFIC manufacturing BiCMOS processes based on Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) to open up the commercial exploitation of very-wide bandwidth mm-waves to support multi-10Gbps capacities;
    • improve E-band RFIC SiGe-based manufacturing processes for industrial-grade low-cost RF frontends suitable for mass deployment of high-capacity links with medium length;
    • introduce high-efficiency interconnection solutions to minimize signal loss between RFICs and radiating elements and promote digital/analog system architectures for optimal signal distribution and compensation of non-ideal effects.
    • enable flexible solutions for network reconfiguration (SDN) and smart alignment of links.
  • All these features translate to component-level requirements involving both superior RF performance and novel topologies, will be supported by a European partnership of system integrators, design houses and research organizations, and semiconductor foundries.

WP5 Task5.2

Demonstrator: Electronically-Steerable Ka-band Array (ESKaA)

  • SIAE will develop and test a Ka-band (25.5-27GHz) transmitting phased array tile involving a novel packaged component with silicon-germanium (SiGe) and gallium-nitride (GaN) technological processes for data downlink from onboard satellites for Earth Observation (EO). EO missions cover a very wide range of applications, including monitoring land, maritime and atmospheric conditions. Higher demands appear for higher data resolution or alternative frequencies, resulting in an increasingly large information throughput in the Space-to-Earth link.
  • The proposed demonstrator contributes to major KDT objectives and goals, especially within the space-oriented scenario:
    • the design and development of a phased array for space applications is the main target but due to the foreseen architecture and topology, the project is flexible in performance and operating frequency;
    • innovative microelectronics achievements are also foreseen within the proposed demonstrator development. The core of the phased array is a single-packaged device which embeds a SiGe die together with GaN Power Amplifiers (PA);
    • a Ka-band GaN PA will be designed, developed and integrated into the envisioned single-package device. The foreseen design targets an excellent power efficiency, which is usually the bottleneck in phased array architecture;
    • the intended use-case has been chosen for its challenging performance but also because the successful validation of an ESKaA phased array will demonstrate higher data throughput from the spacecraft.
  • Objectives and features will be translated to MMICs, antenna and system requirements which serve as baseline for SIAE and all the involved partners, in charge of feasibility study, design phase, manufacturing, and testing. The ESKaA project will be therefore supported by a European network of system integrators, Universities, and semiconductor foundries.

For more info

Website: https://www.shiftkdt.eu/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shift-kdtju/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SHIFT_KDTJU

Info on CORDIS - EU research results: link

Info on MIMIT website: link

CUP B29H23000010004

6bc06ee3 1e82 4875 857e 0e51692035fd

Prev
``

NOTE! This site uses cookies and similar technologies.

If you not change browser settings, you agree to it. Learn more

I understand
To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. Most big websites do this too.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

How do we use cookies?

  • Our site uses cookies only to improve navigability, to identify and remember users' actions.
  • The cookies used are of the session type.
  • The cookies are not controlled from third parties.
  • The cookies will not be used for any purposes other than the ones stated

Enabling these cookies is not strictly necessary for the website to work but it will provide you with a better browsing experience. You can delete or block these cookies, but if you do that some features of this site may not work as intended.
The consent can be withdrawn at any time.

How to control cookies

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.