Applied to invest 4 billion to set up collaborative semiconductor research center

Semiconductor equipment tool vendor Applied Materials announced investment of US$ 4 billion for next seven years to build what it calls world's largest semiconductor manufacturing research facility, where the leading semiconductor chipmakers, semiconductor ecosystem partners as well as academic researchers from universities can collaborate with Applied Materials in developing processes and the equipment in making angstrom (1nm range) scale semiconductor chips. The collaborative idea is to reduce the design turnaround time for new technology innovations in chipmaking. Applied plan to locate the new facility in the Silicon Valley, US with a physical space of 180,000 square ft state-of-the-art cleanroom. This new facility is called as EPIC Center. Applied plan to complete the new facility by 2026.
Applied release states "Designed from the ground up to accelerate the pace of introducing new manufacturing innovations, the new EPIC Center is expected to reduce the time it takes the industry to bring a technology from concept to commercialization by several years, while simultaneously increasing the commercial success rate of new innovations and the return on R&D investments for the entire semiconductor ecosystem." "While semiconductors are more critical to the global eco...