To address the research and development challenges faced by the semiconductor industry, to continuously generate innovative ideas and seeds, and to foster the next generation of engineers in the semiconductor field, it is essential to build a research environment that enables foundational and infrastructure-level research from various approaches. However, it is difficult for individual university laboratories or corporate research lines to independently maintain the wide range of equipment required for semiconductor manufacturing.
To address this, we will establish a network called the ARIM Semiconductor Technology Infrastructure (ARIM-SETI), by leveraging the Advanced Research Infrastructure for Materials (ARIM), which operates as a distributed and networked platform of advanced shared facilities across 26 research institutions nationwide. This network will strengthen and integrate the foundational infrastructure for semiconductor research and development, making it accessible to a wide range of users in the semiconductor R&D community. Through this initiative, we aim to raise the overall level and broaden the base of Japan's semiconductor R&D and engineers development.
ARIM-SETI will enhance the existing strengths of ARIM in supporting materials and process research, while also building and reinforcing support systems for the design, prototyping, and evaluation of semiconductor integrated circuits. By doing so, it will accelerate diverse R&D efforts-from materials and processes to devices and systems. The platform will comprehensively support research and development on novel materials used in semiconductor devices, devices and integrated circuits featuring new materials, advanced functions, or special structures, their high-density integration, and application systems that utilize such integrated circuits.