Aveiro, Portugal, is a coastal city which can trace its history back more than a thousand years. More recently, it has transformed into a leading European “living laboratory” that acts as a testing ground for breakthrough digital innovations.
From June 16-18, 2026, Corridor Chief Operating Officer Jack Henkel and Cenfluence semiconductor cluster companies Silicon Assurance (based in Gainesville) and NanoSpective (based in Orlando) were hosted by AIDA CCI – Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Aveiro District under the framework of the Microelectronics Agenda, the initiative is part of the Agenda’s internationalization strategy and is co-funded by Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and the European Union’s NextGenerationEU funds.
Joining Jack was Raj Gautam Dutta, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of Silicon Assurance, and Brenda Prenitzer, CEO and Founder of Nanospective.
Aveiro has emerged as a significant hub for microelectronics, photonics and telecommunications technology. Much like The Corridor region, Aveiro benefits from a concentration of research universities, innovative SMEs and multinational manufacturing operations aligned around a national microelectronics agenda.
The mission enabled the delegation to engage directly with partners of the Microelectronics Agenda, as well as other relevant organizations from the Portuguese technology ecosystem, including PCI – Creative Science Park Aveiro Region, Altice Labs, Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), HFA, Henrique Fernando e Alves S.A., Amkor Technology Portugal, and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL).
The EU Chips Act has positioned Portugal to capture a large share of Europe’s goal to produce 20% of global semiconductor output by 2030. “Portugal is ready to become a hub of talent and innovation within Europe’s semiconductor value chain,” said Antonio Barny Monteiro, R&D Senior Manager at Amkor Technology Portugal S.A, in a recent news release. “Partnerships with U.S. companies will be crucial to strengthening Western technological sovereignty.”
The Corridor trio was proud to introduce the Portuguese hosts to the region’s capabilities. Florida has the fifth largest semiconductor sector in the U.S. and a growing cluster of microelectronics startups and is home to the Florida Semiconductor Engine in NeoCityFL.
Silicon Assurance is a hardware security company that develops AI-driven Electronic Design and Automation software to establish trust across the semiconductor supply chain. Silicon Assurance’s proprietary software is the industry’s first end-to-end, AI-driven EDA platform for hardware security verification. The company is a spinoff from the University of Florida.
NanoSpective is an advanced materials characterization company which can examine materials at an atom level to see exactly what they are made of, how they are structured or study newly invented materials to see how they behave and what they can be used for. The company delivers custom-tailored commercial analytical services and custom metrology for research, design, manufacture and deployment of cutting-edge technology and materials.
Thank you to AIDA CCI – Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Aveiro District for hosting this journey.