Rapidus CEO Chasing Single-Wafer-Processing Dream

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Rapidus will start Japan's sole semiconductor foundry making the world's most advanced silicon just two years behind TSMC.

www.eetasia.com/, Jul. 03, 2023 – 

Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike will get a boost from Japan's CHIPS Act and IBM to start the nation's sole semiconductor foundry making the world's most advanced silicon just two years behind industry heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), he said in an exclusive interview with EE Times in Brussels.

Koike and his team of more than 100 people are taking on the challenge of a lifetime.

Koike is a chip-industry veteran who recently worked for Western Digital and founded Trecenti, a Japanese foundry that didn't take off, two decades ago. That company failed because it was too closely tethered to chipmaker Hitachi, Koike said.

He hopes his second chance, Rapidus, will realize his dream of creating a foundry that provides fast cycle time for customers.

"My idea is single-wafer processing," Koike said. "It means the fab does not have any stock, so I can manufacture very precisely to control the cycle time."

Koike aims to turn the standard practice of processing hundreds of wafers at a time on its head. By extracting data from a single wafer rather than hundreds, Rapidus plans to cut cycle time by eliminating production problems rapidly.

The company will also accelerate output using wafer bonding, a technique that's just beginning to win industry adoption.

"We can manufacture differently by attaching one wafer to another to shorten cycle time," Koike said. "That's kind of a new idea."

Rapidus will count on help from Japan's CHIPS Act and an alliance with IBM to start production of 2-nm chips by 2027. That's after TSMC launches its 2-nm process in 2025.

Rapidus is leading Japan's global partnership for R&D and mass production of next-gen semiconductors, according to Satoshi Nohara, an official with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Nohara is responsible for implementing the nation's CHIPS Act.

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