IMEC inaugurates nanolab
The new facility includes a three-level fab structure, as well as office accommodation for more than 400 people and a central utility building. The fab has a total work surface of 16,280m2 and includes a plenum, a 3200m2 ballroom-style clean room with 2200 m2 of space sitting on a vibration-controlled waffle table, a clean subfab and a utility fab. The clean room, suitable for full 300mm wafer processing, is now ready for equipment installation.
The facility construction started in early 2003 representing a total investment of EUR84mn. Of that total, EUR37.2mn represents a grant from the local government, and the remaining EUR46.8mn was obtained as a loan from Fortis Bank supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“As committed as TI is to developing its own process technology and manufacturing infrastructure, it is critical to take a broad look at all the options before choosing where to invest our internal development resources,” comments Hans Stork, Texas Instruments’ chief technology officer, on his company’s move to core status. TI first became an IMEC industrial affiliate in 1992. Areas of IMEC research of primary interest to TI include lithography, high-k gate dielectrics, strained silicon and copper /low-k interconnect programs.
IMEC also announced its 2003 financial results - 6% higher revenues from contract research as compared to 2002, making up EUR111mn. Of the total, 54% of the contract revenue comes from collaborations with international industry, 26% from collaborations with Flemish industry and the remainder comes from European Commission, European Space Agency (ESA) and local government projects. In the course of 2004, IMEC’s total budget is expected to rise to approximately EUR160mn including a EUR34mn subsidy from the Flanders government.
Staffing increased to 1300 in 2003, including some 380 guest researchers and industrial residents. The facility submitted 62 and was granted 61 patents. Some 1299 scientific papers and conference contributions were published in collaboration with Flemish universities.
