Applied Materials, A*STAR To Jointly Invest S$150 Mln For R&D Lab In Singapore

(RTTNews) - Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials Inc (AMAT) announced Monday that it plans to establish a new R&D laboratory in Singapore in collaboration with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research or A*STAR. The S$150 million joint investment will focus on developing advanced semiconductor technology to fabricate future generations of logic and memory chips.

The investment is expected to create 60 jobs in the facility for highly skilled scientists, engineers and researchers.

The intention is for products developed by the joint lab to be manufactured by Applied Materials in Singapore.

The company said the joint lab will be housed within A*STAR's new R&D cluster at Fusionopolis Two. It will feature a 400 square meter Class 1 cleanroom with state-of-the-art semiconductor process equipment that has been custom designed and built by Applied Materials.

A*STAR's Microelectronics, Materials Research and Engineering, and High Performance Computing institutes will contribute to research in low-defect processing, ultra-thin film materials, materials analysis and characterisation, and modelling and simulation in many areas.

The joint lab is also supported by The Singapore Economic Development Board, the company noted.

In addition, Applied Materials plans to conduct experiments on the synchrotron at the Singapore Synchrotron Light Source or SSLS and work with the National University of Singapore where a new beamline for semiconductor applications is to be developed.

Funding for the construction of the new beamline is supported by the National Research Foundation.