Nanoelectronics research center imec, today reported the financial results for fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. Revenue for 2014 totaled 363 million euros, a 9 percent growth from the previous year.

The fiscal year end total includes the revenue generated through R&D contracts from international partners, collaborations with universities worldwide and funds from European research initiatives. The annual revenue figure also covers a yearly grant from the Flemish government totaling 48.8 million euro in 2014, and a 4.1 million euro grant from the Dutch government to support the Holst Centre, a research center setup by imec and TNO.

“I am extremely proud that 2014, our 30th anniversary year, concludes as one of our strongest years ever,” said Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “We reported strong financial growth, announced new collaborations and inspiring innovations. We filed a record number of patents, achieved notable industry awards and published prominent scientific papers—all a testament to our commitment to innovate. Moreover, we also added significant talent to our already impressive roster of researchers, growing to a total of 2,188 employees by the end of 2014.”

“Looking to the future, together with our partners, we are committed to overcome the next challenges. First, we work to enable the fabrication of sub-10nm technology. With further scaling, new lithography techniques and new materials, and based on CMOS technology, we’ll be busy doing that for another number of years. But we have also started looking for materials and techniques for the post-CMOS era. There are many alternatives, and it is our task to see which of these can be scaled to a technology that can be mass-produced. Next to that, we help our partners with technologies for the sustainable and smart applications of the Internet-of-Things, Internet-of-Energy, and Internet-of-Health. It is expected that 2015 will be an important year for the breakthrough of these systems. A breakthrough that will be positive for the whole semiconductor industry;” continued Luc Van den hove. “This groundbreaking research requires ever more talent. That’s why today we have over 100 vacancies for a variety of profiles. Vacancies for people who have the ambition to contribute to the technologies for a sustainable future.”

2014 Organizational Highlights:

• As an international scientific hub, 71 nationalities are now represented at imec, a multicultural environment, attracting top global talent
• 950 peer-reviewed papers and conference presentations were published
• ·         Imec and the organization’s researchers received 34 awards. Amongst them, imec took home the CS Industry R&D Award 2014, recognizing success and progression along the entire value chain of the semiconductor industry, for its outstanding work on III/V FinFET devices. Imec also received the PRoF Award for Research 2014, acknowledging the application of imec’s nanotechnology research and development in the healthcare domain. In July 2014, imec was awarded by the European Commission with the HR excellence in Research label, a recognition of imec’s human resource policy to create the best possible employment and working conditions for researchers 
• With a record of 143 filed patents, imec was the leading Belgian applicant of European patents in 2014. In the past years, imec has increased its investment in building a patent portfolio to support its R&D offering and to form a solid base for more application oriented activities. Imec’s patent portfolio also leverages the patent portfolio of Flemish Academia with which the organization collaborates
• Two new spin-offs were launched in 2014—Luceda Photonics, active in photonics design, and Bloom Technologies, focusing on wearable health monitoring for expectant mothers
• To house its growing talent base, imec opened a new office building, as it aims to expand further across its R&D focuses. Additionally, the center also started building a new cleanroom that adheres to the very latest standards with a significant footprint for the most advanced semiconductor tools. The new cleanroom will enable the organization to remain at the forefront of nanoelectronics research and development, offering a neutral platform where all the key players from the semiconductor value chain closely collaborate to advance the next generation technology nodes and advancing industrial innovation
• Imec IC-link is imec’s industrial arm offering SMEs, universities and research institutes access to advanced foundry technologies, assembly, test, and place and route services. With a customer base of more than 300 SMEs and 700 universities and research institutes (through Europractice service), IC-link tapes-out an average of 500 designs per year