The recent memorandum of cooperation between Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus and IMEC, the largest chip research and development institution in Europe, shows that the company is advancing the research and development and production of advanced semiconductor technology. Rapidus plans to mass produce 2nm semiconductors by 2025 and 2027. Mass production of improved 2nm+ ultra-fine semiconductors.
It is reported that Rapidus is a high-end chip company jointly invested by eight Japanese giants, including Toyota, Sony, Kaixia, NTT, Denso, NFC, Mitsubishi and Softbank. RMB) subsidy.
Rapidus comes from Latin, which means “fast”. Rapidus mainly aims to mass-produce advanced semiconductors below 2nm that have not yet been practically used in the world.
The memorandum was signed by Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, Jan Youngbon, Minister of Foreign Policy, Culture, Digitalization and Facilities of Flanders, Belgium, Atsuyoshi Koike, President and CEO of Rapidus, and Luc Van, President and CEO of IMEC. den hove sign.
Rapidus plans to mass-produce 2nm chips in Japan in the second half of the 2020s, which will be used in 5G communications, quantum computing, data centers, self-driving cars and digital smart cities, among other fields. IMEC intends to support Rapidus in research and development of cutting-edge technologies.
To this end, the two parties expressed their intention to establish a strategic partnership, Rapidus will become a core partner of IMEC’s advanced nanoelectronics project, and the memorandum also mentions cooperation with the upcoming Frontier Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC), which will serve as R&D center for post-2nm technology in Japan.
According to Nikkei, Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike admitted that Japan is 10-20 years behind in cutting-edge technology nodes, and it will not be easy to turn around.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said Imec and Rapidus intend to conduct bilateral projects on key technologies such as EUV lithography, and Rapidus may send engineers to Imec for training. In turn, Imec is willing to consider setting up an R&D team in Japan to develop a long-term roadmap. Additionally, Imec and Rapidus will consider further collaboration with the upcoming Frontier Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC), according to METI.
The LSTC is reported to be a technology center incubated after the U.S. and Japan agreed on basic principles for semiconductor cooperation at the first meeting of the Japan-U.S. Commercial and Industrial Partnership (JUCIP) in May. LSTC plans to serve as a research and development base, while Rapidus will serve as a mass production base.
According to Nikkei, Koike said Rapidus would not seek to catch up with TSMC and Samsung in terms of production scale, but would instead explore a different business model focused on rapid production.
According to the METI document, Rapidus will acquire the basic technology of the 2nm process in fiscal year 2022 and start installing EUV lithography equipment, formulate the specifications of the equipment, transmission system and production management system required for a short turnaround time (TAT) production system, and deploy Initial design of the test line.
