Research centre imec partners with Japanese chip manufacturer

Leuven-based nanotechnology centre imec and Japanese chip manufacturer Rapidus have signed a cooperation agreement, imec announced on Tuesday. The partners will collaborate in research on advanced chip technology.

In early December 2022, imec and Rapidus announced their intention to forge closer ties. During the Belgian economic mission to Japan that month, Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan's minister for economy, trade and industry, and Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon signed a declaration of intent.

Rapidus and imec are now officially research partners. The microchip company, founded in August 2022, wants to start producing its newest generation of chips, the high-performance 2-nanometre chips, in the second half of this decade. Imec will help the company implement the technology needed to mass-produce the chips.

"We are delighted with this partnership," says Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec. "Now that Rapidus is part of our Core Partner programme, we can help them even better with research that will form the basis for the 5G communication applications, quantum computing applications, data centres, autonomous vehicles and smart cities of the future."

"We are delighted with this partnership"

"The collaboration gives us access to imec's most advanced technologies, system solutions, state-of-the-art pilot line and extensive partner network," says Atsuyoshi Koike, CEO of Rapidus. "This is how we aim to put Japan back on the world map in terms of chip manufacturing."

Imec (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) is a research and development organisation working on nanoelectronics and digital technologies, with headquarters in Leuven, the city that is home to Belgium's largest university. It is supervised by a board of directors that includes delegates from industry, Flemish universities and the Flemish government.

(BRV)

^{#FlandersNewsService | From left to right: Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon, imec CEO Luc Van den hove, Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike, Japanese minister of economy Yasutoshi Nishimura and Rapidus chairman Terry Higashi © BELGA PHOTO HAND OUT FLANDERS INVESTMENT AND TRADE}