Posted on Thursday, January 14 2010 @ 1:21 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
EE Times
reports European semiconductor manufacturing equipment firms have come together with Intel and research group IMEC to form a European 450mm wafer equipment and materials initiative, named EEMI-450.
The group has held a couple of meetings during 2009 and applied for funding under the ENIAC European nanotechnology program and under the European Union Framework Project 7 (FP7) as a so-called co-ordinated action.
The objective of the ENIAC EEMI-450 and CASA-450 programs is "to improve the competitiveness of the European semiconductor E&M [equipment and materials] industry and therefore increase the chances to be selected by the tier 1 semiconductor companies in their future 450-mm operations," according to a presentation from Bas Van Nooten, director of European cooperative programs for ASM International NV (Almere, The Netherlands), who has been acting as a spokesman for EEMI-450.
The projects are also expected "to stimulate a European infrastructure that is leading in 450-mm development and as a result will induce tier 1 companies to [join] cooperation programs and possibly equip 450-mm fabs in Europe," van Nooten added in the presentation.
