Intel Partners With Japan’s AIST to Launch Advanced Chipmaking Facility

Intel and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have partnered to establish a chip manufacturing research and development center in Japan.

The facility will be the first in Japan to feature extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) equipment, which is used to manufacture the smallest chipsets measuring 5 nanometers or less.

It will be operated by AIST, part of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Intel will provide expertise in chip manufacturing using the EUV technology.

The research and development hub will be the first domestic research institution to feature EUV technology and be available for chip manufacturers and materials companies in return for a fee.

The move aims to enable Japanese chip designers to work with AIST and Intel using the latest process technologies to make them more globally competitive.

EUV equipment is expensive with each unit costing around $200 million. Japanese organizations currently access the technology through overseas organizations like Belgium’s Imec, considered to be one of the world’s top semiconductor research and development hubs.

Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus is scheduled to install its own Imec EUV technology in December.  

The new facility will take three to five years to build and will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars due to the price of EUV equipment.

This article was first published in IoT World Today’s sister publication AI Business.