Micron Technology To Invest JPY 500B In EUV Technology With Government Aid

Micron Technology announced on Wednesday (May 17) that it aims to invest up to 500 billion yen (US$3.7 billion) in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology over the next five years, with government support.

The most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) chipmaking tools will be utilised to create 1-gamma chips, which can be used for mass manufacturing of material required in sophisticated applications like image processing networks.

Micron will be the first semiconductor company to bring EUV technology to Japan for production, the company announced, adding that it intends to start producing EUV on the 1-gamma node in Taiwan and Japan in 2025.

Last year, the US memory chip company began mass production of its new high-capacity low-power 1-beta dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips at its Hiroshima plant.

DRAM chips are memory chips that lose information when the power is turned off.

Japan has been working to revitalise its chip business, which has seen its worldwide market share decrease from around 50% in the late 1980s to around 10% today, while the US is increasingly pressing its allies to work together to challenge China's chip and advanced technology development.