IMEC
has officially established IMEC Taiwan in the Hsinchu Science Park.
IMEC Taiwan initially starts as a representative office but is expected
to grow into an R&D center within the coming 6 months.
IMEC Taiwan aims to set up a win-win situation by facilitating
the access for Taiwanese semiconductor companies to IMEC's R&D
programs and tap into the local high technology skills. The
establishment of IMEC Taiwan follows several memoranda of understanding
and collaborations between IMEC and leading Taiwanese companies,
R&D institutes and universities, with the strong support of the
National Science Council Taiwan.
IMEC intends to reinforce its collaborations in Taiwan by
focusing on semiconductor process technology research with foundries,
on IC and system design with companies and academia, on dedicated
training, on facilitating the interaction between Europractice IC
service and the Taiwanese foundries for low-cost IC prototyping and
small volume production, and on developing heterogeneous process
technologies for fablite and fabless companies.
"Taiwan is worldwide recognized as the core of semiconductor
foundry manufacturing. Combined with its innovative power, the
Taiwanese industry will also become a leading player in the development
of new applications.
We are convinced that an institute like IMEC Taiwan can add
value in this evolution," said Prof. Gilbert Declerck, President and
CEO of IMEC. "By bridging the cultural, language and geographical gap
we can facilitate the access to our programs and easily interact with
local companies. We intend also to tap into the local pool of highly
schooled labor to strengthen our system and IC design team."