Japanese chip company Rapidus plans to build a 1nm chip factory

Source: Mantianxin

    Japanese chip manufacturer Rapidus President Junichi Koike elaborated on the company‘s new plan to build a factory in Chisui City, Hokkaido, at a recent meeting. This includes a 1nm chip factory, which represents the world‘s most advanced production process.

    Rapidus held a roundtable meeting for the media last week, during which President Junichi Kochi announced that the Qiansui factory will build two or more new manufacturing plants, corresponding to the unused process technology; In addition, in order to strengthen technological development, it is expected that the number of employees will double from the current 100 in 2023, and further recruitment will be expanded after 2024.

    Among the two planned factory facilities mentioned by Kochi Junyi at the meeting, one is for the 2 nanometer process and is called "IIM1"; Another building will be used to produce more advanced 1-nanometer process chip factories, named "IIM2". And Rapidus is also considering expanding the number of factories in this project to 3-4 buildings in the future.

    The IIM (Innovative Integration for Manufacturing) named after the newly built factory is used to replace the term "Fab" for existing semiconductor factories, as they mainly produce brand new semiconductor products.

    This company is a high-end chip company jointly established by 8 Japanese companies, including Toyota, Sony, Nippon Telecom, Nippon Electric, Nippon Electric, Softbank, Armor, and Mitsubishi UFJ. At the beginning of its establishment, it received an initial financing of 70 billion yen from the Japanese government.

    Last December, Rapidus announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with IBM in the United States to jointly develop 2 nanometer node technology.

    It is reported that Rapidus will develop the "Rapidus version" process technology based on IBM‘s 2-nanometer process technology. It is planned to pilot produce logic chips in 2025 and begin mass production in 2027.

    The Rapidus version of the 2 nanometer process will focus on two major directions: "High Performance Computing (HPC)" and "Ultra Low Power Consumption".