Applied Materials said in its 29 September announcement that KIOXIA would join its EPIC Center in Silicon Valley to develop memory technology, as Applied expects capital spending on the centre to scale to approximately $5 billion when customer projects begin.
Key points
- Applied says the work with KIOXIA will cover memory structures, chip stacking, advanced packaging and materials engineering.
- Applied expects spending on the EPIC Center to scale to approximately $5 billion as customer projects commence.
- The company expects the centre to be operationally ready in 2026.
KIOXIA targets cells and chip stacking
Applied describes KIOXIA as a supplier of flash memory and solid state drives. The companies plan to bring KIOXIA’s memory development work together with Applied’s materials engineering at the EPIC Center, according to Applied’s announcement.
The proposed research covers memory cells and structures intended to raise density for AI applications, Applied says. It also covers architectures that stack multiple chips to fit more memory and improve performance within limited space. Those are development aims rather than results the companies reported achieving.
Packaging is another part of the programme. Applied says the teams will examine how stacked memory dies are integrated and connected, alongside materials that could support production of new memory structures at scale. The work spans the memory device, the assembled package and the processes needed to manufacture them.
Prabu Raja, president of Applied’s Semiconductor Products Group, identified cost and complexity as challenges when raising memory density. He said advances would require work across materials, equipment and processes. The company is positioning the KIOXIA collaboration across those areas, rather than around a single component.
Minori Kajimoto, KIOXIA’s general manager of advanced memory development, said engineers from the two companies would work alongside one another at the centre. KIOXIA aims to accelerate the commercialisation of memory and packaging technologies through that arrangement, she said.
Applied ties $5 billion to customer projects
Applied expects capital spending on the EPIC Center to grow over time to approximately $5 billion as customer projects commence. That figure is the company’s expected investment in the centre, not a stated value for the KIOXIA partnership.
The company expects the Silicon Valley facility to be operationally ready in 2026. It describes the centre as a place for joint development intended to shorten the route from early research to high-volume manufacturing. Applied says chipmakers will gain earlier access to its research and development portfolio through work there.
Applied says the centre’s programmes are intended to speed up learning cycles and the transfer of technologies into production. For Applied, the proposed benefit is a longer view of customer needs across successive chip designs, which it says would help direct its research spending and improve productivity.
Applied places KIOXIA within an EPIC Center network that it says includes chipmakers, chip designers, equipment partners and universities. The partnership brings a flash memory supplier into a programme Applied has designed around joint development with customers and other participants in chip production.
EPIC Center work faces development risks
Gary Dickerson, Applied’s president and chief executive, said the companies would combine KIOXIA’s memory expertise with Applied’s materials engineering work. Hiroo Ota, KIOXIA’s president and chief executive, described the partnership as a commitment to developing memory through materials and process innovation.
Applied identifies semiconductor demand and customers’ technology requirements among the uncertainties affecting its plans. It also identifies its ability to develop technologies, protect intellectual property and meet the EPIC Center’s objectives as risks to the outcomes described in its announcement.
