TECH

US and Japan will form strategic partnership to mass manufacture 2nm chips

By the end of the year, a research center will be inaugurated in Japan, as part of a partnership project with the United States, from which the development of technologies for the mass production of chips will be carried out using the process technology of 2 no. Going forward, the joint project will help companies build stable supply chains and guard against tensions around industry leader Taiwan.

The center will be created on the basis of a new research institute, which will also open this year – as part of the project, the use of equipment and the participation of experts from the National Center for Semiconductor Technology in the United States are planned. Initially, researchers from both countries will focus on advanced chips based on 2nm process technology, which will improve performance and reduce energy consumption over existing solutions. The center will also set up a prototype production line, and the project's ultimate goal is to start mass production of the chips in Japan by 2025.

Plans to launch a partnership project were announced in May by Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Koichi Hagiuda and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo – in May, the parties worked out all the details. On the Japanese side, the project participants will be the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (NIAIST), the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) and the University of Tokyo.

Taiwan is now home to over 90% of the world's sub-10nm semiconductor manufacturing capacity, with companies on the island planning to reach 2nm by 2025. At the same time, there is an opinion that Beijing plans to annex the island to mainland China by force, and the United States is categorically not happy about it – most advanced chips arrive in the country from Taiwan. Upon completion of the research project, the technologies developed will be transferred to other countries that share American values ​​– for example, South Korea. The initiative involves not only technological support, but also financial support: one of the companies in Tokyo could receive investments of 1 trillion yen (US$ 7.3 billion).

The world's leading producer of advanced chips today is Taiwan's TSMC, followed by South Korea's Samsung and American Intel. The US is also a center for the development of advanced chips: the direction is represented, in particular, by NVIDIA and Qualcomm. And Japanese companies Tokyo Electron, Screen Holdings, Shin-Etsu Chemical and JSR specialize in equipment and materials for the production of microcircuits. In the early 1990s, Japan's share of the global semiconductor market was around 50%, but now it has dropped to 15%.

AVnews