Belgian imec to Build NanoIC Pilot Line with 2.5 Billion Euros

TapTechNews May 21st, the Belgian imec microelectronics research center announced today that it will take the lead in building the NanoIC pilot line.

The advanced process pilot line project is expected to receive a total of 2.5 billion euros (TapTechNews note: currently about 25.7 billion US dollars) in public and private donations.

The NanoIC pilot line is one of the four advanced semiconductor pilot line projects designated by the European chip consortium ChipJU, aiming to bridge the gap from the laboratory to the wafer fab and accelerate the development, design and testing of concept verification products through small batch production.

In addition to the NanoIC pilot line it hosts, imec will also participate in the advanced FD-SOI process pilot line and the advanced heterogeneous system packaging integration pilot line projects.

The NanoIC pilot line led by imec will focus on the development of sub-2nm process SoC and provide PDK for participants from the academic community to the corporate community for prototype development, thereby reducing the risk of chip research and development and improving development efficiency.

Of the 2.5 billion euros in donations, an estimated 1.4 billion euros will come from ChipJU and the Flemish government of Belgium, and another 1.1 billion euros from industry partners such as ASML.

Luc Vandenhove, president and CEO of imec, said:

The support of the European Union, the Flemish government and industry partners will enable us not only to maintain our leading position, but also to be closer to market needs.

This investment will double our output and learning speed, accelerate our innovation pace, strengthen the European chip ecosystem, and promote European economic growth.