Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, July 25, with the support of the Japanese government and major consortia, Rapidus has started the only semiconductor factory in Japan to manufacture advanced silicon technology, and plans to start trial production of 2nm in 2025 and mass production in 2027, only two years behind the industry giant TSMC.

Junyi Koike, chief executive of Rapidus, said in an interview with the Nikkei that talks were under way to supply semiconductors to some of the largest technology companies in the United States. "We are looking for a US partner and we have started talks with some GAFAM companies. Specifically, there is demand from the data center." He said.

CTOnews.com Science Popularization: Rapidus was founded in August 2022 and is jointly funded by eight Japanese enterprises, including Toyota, Sony, NTT, NEC, Softbank Corp., Denso Denso, Meixia and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, with a capital contribution of 7.3 billion yen. In addition, the Japanese government has also provided a subsidy of 70 billion yen as the R & D budget.

Junyi Koike, president of Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus, previously said: it is planned to build a 2nm prototype line by the first half of 2025 at the earliest. It will take 2 trillion yen to establish the technology, and another 3 trillion yen to prepare for the production line.

The first prototype of the 2nm semiconductor pilot line will be completed in 2025 and then mass production will begin in 2027 to catch up with world-class semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC, which plans to mass-produce 2nm process processes in 2025.

It is worth mentioning that the technical difficulty required for 2nm mass production is much higher than that of the existing technology. Although TSMC has a factory in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, the semiconductor plant, which is scheduled to start mass production in 2024, can only produce 1228 nm products.

In addition, Rapidus signed a technology licensing agreement with IBM of the United States at the end of 2022, and IBM successfully trial-produced 2nm products in 2021. Rapidus will send staff to the United States in the near future to master the basic skills needed.

Junyi Koike previously said that the team of Rapidus experts is now about 100 people, and the first batch has completed relevant training in IBM, New York. IBM is a major technology donor to Rapidus, demonstrating storage prototypes made using 2nm technology in 2021.

Rapidus plans to develop "Rapidus version" manufacturing technology based on IBM 2nm process technology, starting trial production of logic semiconductors in 2025 and mass production in 2027. The production technology of the Rapidus version is mainly concentrated in two main areas:

High performance Computing (HPC) chips that are expected to grow in demand

"Ultra Low Power" chips for predicting the future of smartphones

Junyi Koike said in an interview that Rapidus will independently test and package its semiconductor components, which will not only shorten the length of the production cycle, but also increase profits.

Rapidus hopes to implement quick feedback on the processing of each silicon wafer, which will greatly speed up the process of identifying defects and problems, and ultimately speed up the time to market of the finished product.

It is said that Rapidus will not compete with TSMC, but will prefer to continue to be a niche manufacturer focusing on servers, the automotive industry, communications networks, quantum computing and smart cities.

Related readings:

"Rapidus, a Japanese foundry, says it will produce 2nm in 2027 and build a 1nm chip factory."

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