Rapidus Co., Ltd. has opened an office in Chitose City, Hokkaido in Japan. Particularly, the new office will serve as a satellite office in the said city. Currently, the city is the location of its soon-to-rise factory.

Specifically, Rapidus’ construction of Integrated Innovation for Manufacturing (IIM) has been ongoing since September last year. Accordingly, it will be the first facility in Japan to manufacture cutting-edge logic semiconductors below the 2nm node. For that reason, the company decided to open a new Chitose office.

As a point of contact in Hokkaido, the office conducts interviews with local companies and handles matters related to general affairs and recruitment. 

State-of-the-Art Facility

Consequently, Rapidus has been dispatching researchers to the Albany Nanotech Complex in New York, United States, one of the world’s most advanced semiconductor research centers, to work with IBM. Particularly, they aim to develop technologies for the production of 2nm logic semiconductors.

Additionally, the company is also planning to acquire EUV lithography technology from imec. Accordingly, this is essential to produce cutting-edge semiconductors. Utilizing these technologies, the company plans to start operation of a pilot production line at IIM-1 in April 2025, and begin mass production in 2027.

Rapidus will contribute to the enhancement of Japan’s industrial strength through the realization of a state-of-the-art LSI foundry by building cooperative frameworks with domestic and overseas materials and equipment industries, as well as international collaborations with IBM, imec, and other partners.

In 2022, Last year, IBM and Rapidus forged joint development partnership to advance logic scaling technology. Primarily, the partnership has given a boost to Japan’s initiatives to become a global leader in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing.

As part of this agreement, Rapidus and IBM will further develop IBM’s breakthrough 2nm node technology for implementation by Rapidus at its fab in Japan. This work will leverage IBM’s decades of expertise in semiconductor research and design.

Recently, Imec and Rapidus have agreed to set up a long-term and sustainable collaboration on advanced semiconductor technologies.