March 14, 2007 – Elpida Memory Inc., a Japanese supplier of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), has entered into a multi-year partnership with IMEC, an independent nanoelectronics research center, to perform R&D for beyond 50nm DRAM process generations, said IMEC today. With this agreement, four of the top five leading DRAM suppliers, including Elpida, Micron, Samsung, and Qimonda, collaborate within IMEC’s global research platform, together with other logic IDMs and foundries.
Building on more than 20 years of experience with nonvolatile memory research, in 2006 IMEC extended its sub-32nm CMOS research platform towards memory scaling. Thereby, IMEC’s package of (sub-)32nm CMOS research programs addresses the challenges of both logic and memory-oriented roadmaps.
Starting April 1, a team of researchers of Elpida will start collaborating closely with IMEC’s researchers to build up a fundamental understanding and to develop robust solutions for front-end-of-line memory technologies in order to perform research and development for beyond 50nm DRAM process generations.
“We are excited that Elpida has joined our research platform. We are convinced that their valuable know-how in memory scaling will be an important asset for our global research platform,” said Prof. Gilbert Declerck, president and CEO of IMEC.
Recent IMEC news:
March 12, 2007 – IMEC signs frame agreement with Flemish government
December 11, 2006 – IEDM roundup: IMEC shows off 3D ICs, sub-32nm Cu contacts, laser anneal, Ge pMOS