Organisation · Standards & Organisations
imec (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre)
The Belgian independent nanoelectronics research institute that operates advanced pilot lines and runs pre-competitive programmes with device makers, equipment vendors and materials suppliers.
It is a neutral venue where next-generation process and patterning options are evaluated.
- Also known as
- IMEC
- Type
- Organisation
- Domain
- Standards & Organisations, Research institutes
- Also relevant to
- Policy, Trade & Geopolitics
Notes
Founded in Leuven in 1984; its logic and memory device roadmaps are among the most cited public views of scaling beyond FinFET.
Overview
imec is an independent research and innovation centre for nanoelectronics and digital technology, founded in 1984 and headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. Chipmakers, equipment and materials suppliers, start-ups and universities use it to explore and test technologies several generations before they reach production fabs. Its own name derives from the Dutch for Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, and it is a research organisation rather than a commercial foundry, although it does offer design and low-volume manufacturing services.
How it works
Most of imec's semiconductor work happens in shared research programmes. Partner companies, often competitors, fund and staff work on problems that come before product competition, such as new transistor architectures, interconnect materials, patterning and 3D integration. Researchers and assignees from partners run experiments on imec's 300 mm pilot line, and results are shared among the members of each programme under agreed terms.
Because imec sits between toolmakers and chipmakers, new equipment and materials often meet real process flows there first. A clear case is lithography: imec and ASML jointly run a High NA EUV lithography lab in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, opened in June 2024, which gives logic and memory makers and their suppliers early access to the first prototype High NA scanner, the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, with processing and metrology tools around it.
imec also works outside pure research. Its IC-Link division offers ASIC design, IP sourcing and manufacturing, from multi-project wafer runs that make a handful of prototypes affordable up to volume production through partner foundries; IC-Link is a member of the TSMC value chain alliance. Beyond chips, imec works on photonics, sensing, health technology and AI, and it supports start-ups through its own accelerator and investment fund.
Examples
- Chipmakers and suppliers running early High NA EUV exposures on the prototype scanner in the joint ASML and imec lab in Veldhoven.
- A memory maker and several equipment vendors sharing results in an imec programme on future interconnect materials.
- A university group placing a test chip on an IC-Link multi-project wafer run so it pays for only part of the wafer.
- A start-up developing an ASIC with IC-Link, from design through manufacturing at a partner foundry.
- A researcher citing imec process results when comparing transistor architectures for nodes beyond 2 nm.
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