Lam Research, imec Broaden Patterning and Metallization Partnership

Coinciding with imec’s annual Technology Forum, taking place this week in Brussels, imec and Lam Research, an equipment supplier for semiconductor manufacturing, signed a collaborative agreement to broaden their R&D partnership. The partnership will combine Lam’s state-of-the-art tools and imec’s advanced integration capabilities to develop patterning and metallization solutions for next generation CMOS process technologies.

More than ever, equipment and material suppliers are playing a key role in collectively tackling the scaling challenges posed by today’s fast-evolving, equipment-intensive, consolidating semiconductor landscape. Strong R&D interactions between manufacturers and suppliers at an early stage of development help to accelerate technology advancements, enabling very efficient cost sharing, minimizing risk, and optimizing the return on investment for IDMs and foundries as well as for equipment suppliers.

“Lam Research has been a strategic partner in imec’s research platform on advanced semiconductor process technologies for more than a decade. Throughout the years, Lam’s tools and processes have been indispensable in the advancement of consecutive technology nodes,” said An Steegen, senior vice president process technology at imec. “Together, Lam Research and imec will perform R&D on state-of-the-art patterning, deposition and metallization solutions for future technology generations.”

Imec’s supplier hub aims at offering a neutral, open innovation R&D platform that involves suppliers more deeply and at an early stage of process step and module development. Suppliers joining imec’s supplier hub concept have the ability to assess their tools on product stacks, develop process control and hardware/software options, and integrate new materials.