Korean chip giants join $5bn global semiconductor R&D Center

By Maekyung News Service

Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. have joined a global semiconductor research and development (R&D) initiative led by U.S. equipment maker Applied Materials Inc., which unveiled a $5 billion facility in Sunnyvale, California, on Monday, local time.

The Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center is the world’s largest facility dedicated to collaborative R&D of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and process technologies. The 55,700 square-meter facility includes 16,200 square meters of advanced cleanroom space.

“As artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure expands, the demand for high-performance computing is creating unprecedented complexity across semiconductor manufacturing technology development roadmaps,” said Gary Dickerson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Applied Materials, emphasizing the need for a new approach to collaboration in semiconductor technology development and commercialization.

The EPIC Center aims to shorten the time required to develop and commercialize next-generation semiconductor technologies by integrating everything from semiconductor materials research to equipment and process development and pilot production under one roof.

Founding partners include Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, TSMC, Intel Corp., and Micron Technology Inc. Innovation partners include Broadcom Inc., Advantest Corp., SCREEN Holdings Co., Kioxia Holdings Corp., and BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi), along with Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Participating companies expressed expectations that the center would accelerate the development and commercialization of next-generation technologies.

“Through EPIC, we will further accelerate the entire process from the development of innovative technologies to their refinement and real-world application,” said Song Jei- hyuck, chief technology officer (CTO) of Samsung Electronics‘ Device Solutions (DS) division.

SK hynix President and CEO Kwak Noh-jung expressed his company’s intention to address major technological transitions across high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM and NAND through collaboration with AMAT.

C.C. Wei, chairman and CEO of TSMC, highlighted the prospect of gaining early access to next-generation semiconductor equipment technologies and advancing areas such as advanced packaging.

Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman and CEO of Micron, anticipated that the collaboration would help accelerate the transition from next-generation memory research to large-scale mass production.

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