- EUV technology is an optical lithography technology used in chip fabrication for critical infrastructure and image processing networks.
- Micron will reportedly install advanced EUV chipmaking equipment from ASML Holding at its Hiroshima fab to produce 1-gamma DRAM chips.
Micron Technology Inc announced its plans to invest up to $3.7 billion (500 billion yen) in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology over the next few years in Japan.
The EUV technology will be used to manufacture its next generation of DRAM, the 1-gamma (1γ) node at its fabrication lab in Hiroshima. Micron will be the first semiconductor company to bring EUV technology to Japan for production. The company expects to use EUV to produce the 1-gamma node in Taiwan and Japan from 2025.
EUV technology is an optical lithography technology used in semiconductor device fabrication of chips used in critical infrastructure and image processing networks.
Bloomberg reported that Micron is set to secure financial incentives worth $1.5 billion (200 billion yen) from the Japanese government to boost domestic chip manufacturing. Micron will reportedly use the money to install advanced EUV chipmaking equipment from ASML Holding at its facility in Hiroshima to fabricate DRAM chips.
The funding is likely to be announced as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets a delegation of chip executives, including Micron Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra, as reported.
The US chipmaker manufactures about one-third of the DRAM used by Japanese companies working in the automotive, data centres, 5G infrastructure and medical equipment sectors.
“We are proud to be the first to use EUV in Japan and develop and manufacture 1-gamma at our Hiroshima fab,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in the company statement.
Micron’s 1-gamma node comes after the company started shipping samples of 1-beta nodes last November, to mobile manufacturers. The company has now started shipping its 1-beta-based LPDDR5X memory made in Hiroshima to industrial, automotive and consumer customers across Asia, the U.S. and Europe. The memory chip delivers low power and performance for AI, intelligent vehicles and virtual reality.
