Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
IMEC has begun expanding its beautiful Leuven, Belgium campus facilities, starting with 2,800 square-meters of research labs and including the extension of its state-of-the-art clean room. With this extension, IMEC will expand its research on 22nm CMOS and beyond, low-cost and high-efficiency solar cells, and biomedical electronics. The Flemish Government invests 35 million euro and IMEC will cover the remaining 35 million euro of the expansion through a loan. IMEC also plans to construct a new office building later, in this, its 25th year.
Groundbreaking has started (see figure) on the 2,800 square-meters of extra lab space, which includes 1,200 square-meters of ultra-clean processing area as an extension of the current 300mm clean room. The new ultra-clean room will be “450mm-ready” so that IMEC’s advanced process technology research continues to follow industry standards. SEMATECH ISMI announced last fall that 450mm wafer handling tests have occurred, but factory interfaces are not yet set so probably the only fab spec. known today would be higher ceilings.
The remaining 1,600 square-meters of new lab space will be used to expand research on silicon and organic solar cells, and also on biomedical electronics. IMEC works on some of the major challenges of our planet: environment, energy, and the ageing population. Programs in areas such as solar energy, smart-grid, energy scavenging, and in several biomedical and medical applications address those challenges. Today, IMEC employs about 1650 people. With this expansion, IMEC expects to create about 300 new jobs in the coming years for many different profiles, including researchers, operators, and lab assistants in several domains.
Gilbert Declerck, CEO of IMEC, stated, “In 2009, IMEC lights 25 birthday candles. Thanks to the unbridled commitment of our researchers and the continuous vision and support of the government of Flanders, we succeeded in putting Flanders on top of the world in nanoelectronics research. We are proud that we can further expand IMEC’s activities so that we continue to offer valuable R&D programs to the industry that will contribute to Flanders, Europe, and the world of tomorrow.” –E.K.