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![]() Imec Headquarters in Leuven, Belgium | |
Company type | Nonprofit company |
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Industry | Nanoelectronics, digital technologies |
Genre | Independent research center |
Founded | 1984 |
Founder | Roger Van Overstraeten |
Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | Taiwan, Japan, United States, China, Netherlands and India |
Key people | Luc Van den hove (President and CEO) |
Services | R&D, business incubation, IP licensing, prototyping, training, (...) |
Revenue | 846 million Euro (2022) |
Number of employees | >5,000 |
Website | imec-int |
Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec) is an international research & development organization, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies with headquarters in Belgium. Luc Van den hove has served as president and CEO since 2009. [1]
Imec leverages its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and its team of more than 5,500 employees and researchers for advanced semiconductor R&D activities, also including system scaling, silicon photonics, artificial intelligence, beyond 5G communications and sensing technologies. In 2022, Imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 846 million euro. [2]
Imec employs more than 5,500 researchers from more than 90 countries; it has numerous facilities dedicated to research and development around the world, including 12,000 square meters of cleanroom capacity for semiconductor processing. [3] The imec headquarters are located in Leuven.
In 1982, the Flemish Government set up a program to strengthen the microelectronics industry in Flanders. This program included setting up a laboratory for advanced research in microelectronics (imec), a semiconductor foundry (former Alcatel Microelectronics, now STMicroelectronics and AMI Semiconductor, [4] ) and a training program for VLSI design engineers. The latter is now fully integrated in the imec activities.
Imec was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization led by Prof. Roger Baron Van Overstraeten. The name imec is an acronym of the original full name: Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum VZW. It is supervised by a board of directors, which includes delegates from industry, Flemish universities and the Flemish Government. Since 1984, imec has been led by Roger Van Overstraeten, Gilbert Declerck (as of June 1999), and Luc Van den Hove (as of July 2009). [1]
In 2015, imec created a joint venture with Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). [5]
In February 2016, it was announced that imec would be merging with the Flemish digital research center, iMinds. The merge was finalized on September 21, 2016. [6]
In January 2024, it was announced that imec would open a centre of R&D in the Andalusia Technology Park in Málaga, Spain. [7]
In March 2024, the Flemish Government stated that imec would "drastically reduce" its partnerships with China due to export control concerns. [5]
Imec is well known for its expertise in shrinking circuitry and the applicability of nanotechnology in novel industries. [8] In 2015, The New York Times stated that imec had helped pioneer techniques to produce some of the world's smallest and most sophisticated chips [9] and the centre was considered to be a world-leader in nanoelectronics research. [10] [11]
In December 2022, imec signed a cooperation agreement with the new Japanese venture Rapidus for the production of 2 nm process semiconductor chips. [12]
Imec performs research in smart energy, [13] ranging from developing ways to actively and cost-effectively plan, deploy, and manage smart grid networks up to improving the efficiency, production and storage cost of (solar) energy. Considerable advances have been made in solar cell and solid state battery technologies. [14] [15] [16]
Together with KU Leuven, VITO, and UHasselt, imec set up a separate R&D hub to perform research into sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. The project is named EnergyVille and employs 400 researchers whose work centers around six interdisciplinary domains: photovoltaics, electrical and thermal storage, power control and conversion, electrical and thermal networks, buildings and districts, strategies and markets. [17]
Imec performs advanced research on artificial intelligence [18] and was awarded US$750,000 twice in 2019 by DARPA in a machine-learning competition.
In a 2017 report, The Financial Times named imec's self-learning neuromorphic chip one of the fifty ideas that will change the world and was described by the newspaper as having the potential to revolutionize computing. [19]
In 2017, the Flemish government commissioned imec to support the 13 leading Flemish cities and the Flemish community in Brussels in their transition to becoming smart cities. [20] imec was also commissioned by the Flemish government and the City of Antwerp to create Europe's largest lab for Internet of Things applications. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
In 2019, the state of Florida declared a partnership with imec to develop hyperspectral technology that is able to better detect invasive Burmese and rock pythons, which have been permanently damaging the Everglades’ eco-systems. [27]
The performance of the Neuropixels probes and their potential for transformational neuroscience experiments was described in a November 9, 2017 paper published in Nature. [28] In 2019, The New York Times reported that imec's Neuropixels technology is widely recognized as the most advanced method of gathering data from brain cells. [29]
In 2018, imec announced the creation of a research venture together with KU Leuven, UZ Leuven and VIB, called Mission Lucidity. The venture’s aim is to decode dementia. [30] [31] imec is creating human-specific living brain models, so called 'brains-on-chips’ which automate and miniaturize human stem cell manipulations, and developing technology to generate programmable, instrumented 3D brain models with single-cell precision. [32] The project was supported by a Collaborative Science Award of one million dollars by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. [31]
Peter Peumans, in charge of imec'slife science technologies program, helped found miDiagnostics and was appointed CTO. In 2019, NASA awarded funding to miDiagnostics to test a technology for monitoring astronauts’ health status under zero gravity conditions, with the aim of advancing space health diagnostics. [33]
Imec develops wearable devices. [34] Its technologies have gained several approvals by regulatory agencies such as the FDA and PMDA and have made contributions to at least one published study. [35]
Through its spinoff Bloomlife, imec develops pregnancy monitoring technology that tracks fetal health and fetal mobility, with the aim of giving pregnant women and their doctors better access to key details about fetal development. [36]
Other applications include ingestible gut sensors designed to capture mechanical, electrical, and chemical changes that occur during digestion, flagging abnormalities and problems while also delivering personalized nutrition advice. [37]
In 2020, imec started a large research project on the development of a breathalyzer to detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath. The basic idea was to use a silicon-based sieve to catch extremely small exhaled air particles from the deep lungs and by doing so, already detect the virus in an early stage of the infection. [38]
STMicroelectronics N.V. is a multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin. It is headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, on the Euronext Paris in Paris and on the Borsa Italiana in Milan. ST is the largest European semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. The company resulted from the merger of two government-owned semiconductor companies in 1987: Thomson Semiconducteurs of France and SGS Microelettronica of Italy.
Synopsys, Inc. is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Synopsys supplies tools and services to the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical design of integrated circuits, simulators for development, and debugging environments that assist in the design of the logic for chips and computer systems. As of 2023, the company is a component of both the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 indices.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's second most valuable semiconductor company, the world's largest dedicated independent ("pure-play") semiconductor foundry, and its country's largest company, with headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It is majority owned by foreign investors, and the central government of Taiwan is the largest shareholder. In 2023, the company was ranked 44th in the Forbes Global 2000.
Cirrus Logic Inc. is an American fabless semiconductor supplier that specializes in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs). Since 1998, the company's headquarters have been in Austin, Texas.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is a partially state-owned publicly listed Chinese pure-play semiconductor foundry company. It is the largest contract chip maker in mainland China.
ASML Holding N.V. is a Dutch multinational corporation founded in 1984. ASML specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips.
The "32 nm" node is the step following the "45 nm" process in CMOS (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication. "32-nanometre" refers to the average half-pitch of a memory cell at this technology level.
The electronics industry is the economic sector that produces electronic devices. It emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries. Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices that are built in factories operated by the industry, which are almost always partially automated.
VIB is a research institute located in Flanders, Belgium. It was founded by the Flemish government in 1995, and became a full-fledged institute on 1 January 1996. The main objective of VIB is to strengthen the excellence of Flemish life sciences research and to turn the results into new economic growth. VIB spends almost 80% of its budget on research activities, while almost 12% is spent on technology transfer activities and stimulating the creation of new businesses, in addition VIB spends approximately 2% on socio-economic activities. VIB is member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading life sciences research centres in Europe.
The Flemish institute for technological research, is an independent Flemish research organisation that provides scientific advice and technological innovations that facilitate the transition to a sustainable society, and this in the areas of energy, chemistry, materials, health and land use.
Science and technology in Flanders, being the Flemish Community and more specifically the northern region of Belgium (Europe), is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes. These are strongly spread over all Flemish cities, from Kortrijk and Bruges in the Western side, over Ghent as a major university center alongside Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven to Hasselt and Diepenbeek in the Eastern side.
The IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal is a science award presented by the IEEE for outstanding contributions to the microelectronics industry. It is given to individuals who have demonstrated contributions in multiple areas including technology development, business development, industry leadership, development of technology policy, and standards development. The medal is named in honour of Robert N. Noyce, the co-founder of Intel Corporation. He was also renowned for his 1959 invention of the integrated circuit. The medal is funded by Intel Corporation and was first awarded in 2000.
Tokyo Electron Limited, or TEL, is a Japanese electronics and semiconductor company headquartered in Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded as Tokyo Electron Laboratories, Inc. in 1963. TEL is best known as a supplier of equipment to fabricate integrated circuits (IC), flat panel displays (FPD), and photovoltaic cells (PV). Tokyo Electron Device, or TED, is a subsidiary of TEL specializing in semiconductor devices, electronic components, and networking devices. As of 2011, TEL was the largest manufacturer of IC and FPD production equipment. Listed on the Nikkei 225, in 2024, Tokyo Electron had a market cap of US$114.6 billion, making it the third-most valuable company in Japan in terms of market cap, and the 12th ranked semiconductor-related company worldwide.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "3 nm" process is the next die shrink after the "5 nm" MOSFET technology node. South Korean chipmaker Samsung started shipping its "3 nm" gate all around (GAA) process, named "3GAA", in mid-2022. On 29 December 2022, Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC announced that volume production using its "3 nm" semiconductor node ("N3") was under way with good yields. An enhanced "3 nm" chip process called "N3E" may have started production in 2023. American manufacturer Intel planned to start 3 nm production in 2023.
Tsinghua Unigroup Co., Ltd. is a shareholding group that oversees a diverse portfolio of more than 200 subsidiaries. It's subsidiaries operate in various sectors including semiconductors, information and communication technologies, finance and insurance, education, and real estate investment and development.
Luc Van den hove is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IMEC, Europe's largest independent research center in the field of nanoelectronics and digital technologies.
Ingrid Verbauwhede is a professor at the COSIC Research Group of the Electrical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, where she leads the embedded systems team. She is a pioneer in the field of secure embedded circuits and systems, with several awards recognising her contributions to the field. She is member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts since 2011. She is a fellow of IEEE.
Francesca Iacopi is an engineer, researcher and an academic. She specializes in materials and nanoelectronics engineering and is a professor at the University of Technology Sydney. She is a chief investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and a senior member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "2 nm process" is the next MOSFET die shrink after the "3 nm" process node.
The Chinese semiconductor industry, including integrated circuit design and manufacturing, forms a major part of mainland China's information technology industry.