Imec cleanroom wins support of Flemish government

Published: 16-Jul-2012

Belgian firm to build a €100m cleanroom to support the manufacture of 450mm wafers


Imec plans to move into the processing of 450mm wafers by building a new €100m cleanroom at its pilot wafer fab in Leuven, Belgium with the support of the Flemish government.

Imec plans to spend a total of €1 billion over the next five years with the goal of opening the new 450mm cleanroom facilities in 2015.

The firm is negotiating a support package with the European Commission and its industrial partners: the foundries, fabless and fablite companies, equipment and material suppliers.

The Belgian firm wants to continue to play a leading role in the research of semiconductor processes and technologies, which it says will require a transition of its 300mm cleanroom to 450mm.

Luc Van den hove, president and ceo at Imec, said: “We are very thankful for the extra support of the Flemish Government for our 450mm cleanroom initiative.”

Imec has also announced a deal with KLA-Tencor, in which the Milpitas, CA, US-based firm will install the first 450mm capable wafer defect inspection system at Imec.

Van den hove said: “This tool will be essential for detecting ultra-small defects which have a substantial impact on yield when scaling to the (sub)-10nm technology nodes.”

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