Japan puts $300m into 2nm R&D – Electronics Weekly
12th February 2024
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has put $300 million into its Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Centre (LSTC) to develop process technology for a 2nm prototype line by 2025, a volume 2nm process by 2027 and a 1.4nm process by 2028.
The processes will be installed at the Hokkaido fab of the government-backed Rapidus startup whose chairman is the former Tokyo Electron boss, Tetsuro Higashi.
“We have such broad support from the government, support from overseas and support from gear
makers,” Higashi told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, “I don’t have the slightest doubt of Rapidus’s success.
Rapidus is backed by eight Japanese compsnies – Toyota, Sony, NTT, SoftBank, Kioxia, Denso, NEC and MUFG Bank – and has technology exchange deals with IBM, Imec and Leti for its process technology development. It has research collaborations with the universities of Tokyo and Tohoku.
“We outsource research and development that the government deems is necessary but is too risky for the private sector to carry out,” said METI’s Hidemichi Shimizu at the Friday conference.
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