Rapidus corporation It has just officialized A very important achievement: it has successfully manufactured its first 2 nm transist. It is very unusual for a company based just three years ago already stepping on the heels to the three giants of the semiconductor production industry: TSMC, Intel and Samsung. These companies plan to start Large scale manufacturing of 2 nm chips During the second semester of 2025, and, although Rapidus is not yet ready to manufacture this type of integrated circuits, the speed with which it is reaching intimidated milestones.
This last company is with Tokyo Electron and JSR Corporation the best option in Japan for recover relevance which he had in the semiconductor industry in the 80 They monopolized in 1988 Nothing less than 50% of the chips industry. However, today none of these companies is positioned among the leaders of a sector dominated with iron fist by Taiwanese, American, Chinese, South Korean and German companies.
Rapidus is fulfilling its promises one by one
The latest generation semiconductor production plant that this company has put up in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), started the wafer processing tests in a pilot line. The directive plan of this factory is to start large -scale production of 2 Nm semiconductors in 2027, and is perfectly credible. In fact, the milestone that has just announced invites us to anticipate that they could even manufacture these chips massively before the end of 2026, although it is only a conjecture.
Rapidus is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (Something less than 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting, Sony, Toyota, Nec, Softbank, Kioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and MUFG Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very bulky, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it They have an indisputable relevance in the sectors of technology, automotive and telecommunications.
The purpose of Rapidus is to tune an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2 Nm chips for AI applications
The relevance of this organization, in any case, lies in the role entrusted to him by the government currently led by Shigeru ishiba. And, as I mentioned a few lines above, this is the company with which Japan aspires to recover competitiveness in the semiconductor manufacturing industry that had three decades ago. Its economy is at stake. In fact, this Asian country began to deploy its strategy to reinforce its integrated circuit industry more than two years ago, so the first results begin to see the light.
What is causing the new Rapidus factory to monopolize the looks of the semiconductor sector is that, According to Atsuyoshi Koikewhich is the president of the company, will be completely automated. Its purpose is to resort to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to set up An automated production line which will be specialized in the manufacture of 2 Nm chips for AI applications. Its plan consists, in short, to produce integrated circuits faster, with a lower and more quality cost.
To manufacture these semiconductors, equipment of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) produced by the Dutch company ASML, and practically all manufacturing processes are automatic. However, the tests of test and validation, interconnection and packaging of the chips are still largely carried out manually in most manufacturing plants. According to Rapidus, its automation technology of all these processes will allow you to reduce the delivery time of your chips by 66% compared to the times they usually offer TSMC and Samsung.
More information | Nikkei Asia
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