Rapidus CEO Chasing Single-Wafer-Processing Dream

By Alan Patterson, EETimes (June 23, 2023)

Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike will get a boost from Japan’s CHIPS Act and IBM to start the nation’s sole semiconductor foundry making the world’s most advanced silicon just two years behind industry heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), he said in an exclusive interview with EE Times in Brussels.

Koike and his team of more than 100 people are taking on the challenge of a lifetime.

Koike is a chip-industry veteran who recently worked for Western Digital and founded Trecenti, a Japanese foundry that didn’t take off, two decades ago. That company failed because it was too closely tethered to chipmaker Hitachi, Koike said.

He hopes his second chance, Rapidus, will realize his dream of creating a foundry that provides fast cycle time for customers.

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