In today's General Assembly, the IMEC
Board confirmed that 2008 was a solid year, and this despite the challenging
economic situation in the electronics industry. The Board also looks with confidence
to the future. Nanoelectronics offers tremendous opportunities for markets such
as healthcare, energy, home entertainment, etc. In this economical downturn,
the IMEC Board is convinced that industry needs research platforms to prepare
in a cost-efficient way for their future products. This will give them a head
start when the economy picks up again.
In 2008, IMEC’s total revenue (P&L) amounted to 270.16 million euro,
of which 44.17 million euro was granted by the Flanders Government. These results
were achieved by 1,659 people, a 5% increase over 2007, including 1103 payroll
people, 329 industrial residents and 189 PhD students. The talent and devotion
of IMEC’s researchers led to important results, evidenced by more than
1,500 conference contributions and publications in prestigious journals, often
in collaboration with universities in Flanders and abroad.
“With the scaling of nanoelectronics, the opportunities for markets such
as healthcare, cleantech, home entertainment are flourishing. New and low-cost
products will arise which can solve societal and environmental problems but
also increase wellness and welfare. To develop these products, industry needs
a research platform where they can prepare in a cost-efficient and rapid way
for these products;” said Gilbert Declerck, CEO of IMEC. “Therefore,
we are determined to expand our research facilities and offering in CMOS scaling
and packaging, photovoltaics, wireless technologies and bioelectronics. The
activities, and their scale, will give IMEC access to new partners such as fabless
and fablite companies, energy companies, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical
companies etc. Also, by making its clean room 450mm ready, IMEC offers a platform
to equipment suppliers to keep doing their future research activities in Europe
and be ready when 450mm takes up in the world.”
IMEC’s activities in photovoltaics are growing rapidly; already in 2009
the R&D team has grown significantly, and it is expected to grow further
in the frame of IMEC’s recent silicon solar cell industrial affiliation
program. In bioelectronics, IMEC has the ambition to become an important center,
growing its research qualitatively. Also in this research domain an extension
of both the workforce and research labs is foreseen, which will make IMEC unique
in its kind for example to do research on neuroscience. And also in IMEC’s
flagship research, CMOS scaling, IMEC looks forward with its research into 3D
integration, and fortifies its lead in lithography with the preproduction EUV
equipment in 2010.
Gilbert Declerck concluded, “We are convinced that it is important to
keep doing research in economic downturns. Our partners will have a definite
advantage when the economy picks up again. They will be able to integrate innovative
solutions immediately, beating those companies to the market that have deferred
their research.”