Dive Brief:
- Applied Materials, an equipment, services and software supplier for chipmakers, has opened its multibillion-dollar Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization Center to collaborate with industry on next-generation technologies.
- Leading chipmakers, systems companies, equipment partners and research universities will work at the center to develop advanced chipmaking processes, as well as to move technologies from early-stage research to high-volume manufacturing faster, Applied Materials said.
- The 600,000-square-foot facility is located at the company’s campus in Sunnyvale, California, and has near four acres of advanced cleanroom space. Applied Materials said it expects capital spending to reach $5 billion as new customer projects begin.
Dive Insight:
The news comes several months after Applied Materials announced it had partnered with South Korea-based SK Hynix to accelerate memory innovation and address semiconductor-related challenges at the EPIC Center. The agreement was reached as technology firms navigate a global shortage of memory chips driven by surging artificial intelligence demand.
According to Applied Materials, the EPIC Center will “reinvent” the standard research and development model in the semiconductor industry. The standard model typically involves handing off foundational materials research, equipment and process development, and process integration and pilot produciton from one siloed environment to the next.
“The EPIC Center is designed to remove these handoffs, putting the people who invent the materials, build the equipment, and make the chips together in a state-of-the-art facility purpose-built for commercialization,” the company said. “The technologies the AI era demands are too complex and too consequential for any one company to invent alone.”
Applied Materials said it expects the center’s operating model to provide chipmakers early access to advanced materials and equipment, shorter learning cycles and a faster path to volume production.
Materials innovation has “outgrown serial development” and “demands coordinated development and integrated solutions,” Prabu Raja, president of Applied Materials’ semiconductor products group, said in a statement. “EPIC is the only place where materials, process technology and equipment will be innovated in parallel, which increases the success rate of new materials and technologies.”
Partners in the EPIC Center “span the AI technology stack” and include TSMC, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron, Samsung Electronics, Broadcom and Advantest, along with Arizona State University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and other institutions. More companies and organizations are expected to join the center over time.
Applied Materials reported $7.01 billion in Q1 revenue, above the midpoint of its guided range, citing increased demand for leading-edge logic, high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging.
