BRUSSELS, Belgium — IMEC, Europe's leading nanoelectronics research center, has expanded its research agreement with foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC). TSMC will base its extended European research efforts at the IMEC premises.
TSMC has been a research partner with IMEC since 2005 taking part in IMEC's core partner program on advanced CMOS production. for 22nm and beyond. TSMC is also a partner to Dutch chip company NXP BV, which is itself a close partner to IMEC.
As part of efforts to expand its R&D TSMC decided to base its European R&D at the IMEC facilities in Leuven, Belgian. At this location IMEC has a 300-mm pilot fab and an extended ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tool.
"This proves the industrial importance of our semiconductor scaling research. We are confident that IMEC's joint research model will contribute to TSMC's approach &@151; collaborate to innovate," said Luc Van den hove, chief operating officer of IMEC.
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