IMEC Breaks Ground on Facility Expansion
IMEC will spend ~$94M to expand its lab space and cleanroom in Leuven, Belgium. The R&D consortium also said it will add ~300 jobs over the coming years as it expands its focus to clean energy, medical applications, and other challenges.
Staff -- PV Society, 4/7/2009
IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) broke ground today on an expansion of its facilities, starting with 2800 m2 of additional lab space, including a 1200 m2 extension of its cleanroom that will be 450 mm-ready. The expansion will support research on sub-32 nm CMOS, high-efficiency solar cells, and biomedical electronics.
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| IMEC is expanding its lab space, and will add several hundred workers. |
IMEC said it also plans to construct a new office building later this year. IMEC, which now employs ~1650 people, said it plans to add ~300 jobs over the next several years, including researchers, operators and lab assistants.
The expansion cost will cost ~70 million euros ($94M), divided equally between the Flemish government and a loan made by IMEC. The consortium celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
“IMEC today is addressing the major challenges of our planet: environment, energy and the aging population,” said IMEC CEO Gilbert Declerck. “Concrete programs in areas such as solar energy, smart-grid, energy scavenging and in several biomedical and medical applications address those challenges. We are proud that we can further expand IMEC’s activities so that we continue to offer valuable R&D programs to the industry that will contribute to Flanders, Europe and the world of tomorrow.”
