IMEC has set up an IMEC Taiwan branch in the Hsinchu Science Park, which will start off as a representative office but is expected to grow into an R&D centre within the next six months.
IMEC Taiwan aims to assist access for Taiwanese semiconductor companies to IMEC’s R&D programs and tap into the local high technology skills. The establishment of IMEC Taiwan follows several memoranda of understanding and collaborations between IMEC and leading Taiwanese companies, R&D institutes and universities, with the strong support of the National Science Council Taiwan.
IMEC intends to reinforce its collaborations in Taiwan by focusing on semiconductor process technology research with foundries, on IC and system design with companies and academia, on dedicated training, on facilitating the interaction between Europractice IC service and the Taiwanese foundries for low-cost IC prototyping and small volume production, and on developing heterogeneous process technologies for fablite and fabless companies.
‘Taiwan is worldwide recognised as the core of semiconductor foundry manufacturing. Combined with its innovative power, the Taiwanese industry will also become a leading player in the development of new applications. We are convinced that an institute as IMEC Taiwan can have an added value in this evolution,’ said Professor Gilbert Declerck, president and CEO of IMEC.
Declerck added: ‘By bridging the cultural, language and geographical gap we can facilitate the access to our programs and easily interact with local companies. We intend also to tap into the local pool of highly schooled labour to strengthen our system and IC design team.’
