IMEC China has announced their signing of collaboration agreement of 65-nanometer CMOS process technology with Shanghai Huali Microelectronic Corporation, a government-backed foundry.

IMEC was opened at Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Shanghai. IMEC has announced that a team of Huali and IMEC researchers will tune IMECs 65 nm manufacturing process at IMEC’s research facilities in Leuven, Belgium. This is done to meet the specifications defined by Huali.

Luc Van Den Hove, president and CEO of IMEC, said that the collaboration with Huali proved that their technologies were valuable at the Chinese market. “We are looking forward to expand our collaborations with the huge high-tech potential of China,” he said.

Shanghai Huali Microelectronic Corporation is a joint venture majority owned by Shanghai Government. The Huahong Group, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and other investors hold the minority shares.

The company was created as it broke ground on a 300-mm wafer fab in January 2009. The company expects a total investment of 14.5 billion Yuan, which would enable it to produce ICs on 90-60-45 nm processes.

Huali’s monthly production capacity is expected to reach 10000, 20000 and 35000 wafers at the end of 2010, 2011 and 2012. IMEC China is starting with five employees. The IMEC’s future collaboration agreements will help them to attract researchers to collaborate with the local companies on the joint development projects.

The IMEC’s project facilitates collaboration between IMEC’s research base in Europe and Chinese semiconductor and system companies, universities and research institutes in the areas of technology transfer, licensing, joint development and training.


Source: CyberMedia News