Rapidus, a Japanese advanced semiconductor manufacturer, announced that its trial production line for semiconductor packaging processes has been officially launched.The pilot production line, located in Chitose City, Hokkaido, is a core part of Rapidus Chiplet Solutions' R&D facility. The facility is located in Seiko Epson's Chitose factory, and has previously produced small-scale trial production of 600mm × 600mm RDL interposer products.
Rapidus plans to increase the production efficiency of AI chips by more than 10 times through new technologies.According to Nikkei, the company uses square glass substrates with a side length of 600 mm. The larger size and less material waste enable the production of 10 times the number of interposers on a single substrate.
In terms of technical roadmap, Rapidus has clear goals. The company plans to achieve large-scale mass production of the 2nm process in the second half of fiscal year 2027, when the monthly production capacity is expected to reach 20,000 to 25,000 wafers. The initial monthly production capacity is 6,000 pieces, and it is planned to increase to 25,000 pieces within about one year after mass production.
On April 11, Rapidus simultaneously launched the analysis center.Located next to 2nm fab IIM-1, the center houses state-of-the-art electron microscopes for physical analysis, environmental and chemical analysis, electrical characterization and reliability testing. The analysis center is located adjacent to the production line to achieve real-time closed-loop verification of manufacturing and analysis.
At the financial level, the Japanese government continues to increase funding. On April 11, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved an additional allocation of 631.5 billion yen to Rapidus.So far, the Japanese government’s cumulative R&D support for Rapidus from 2022 to 2026 has reached 2.354 trillion yen.
Rapidus was jointly established by eight Japanese companies including Toyota, Sony, SoftBank, Kioxia, NTT, Denso, and NEC at the end of 2022 to be responsible for the R&D and production of next-generation semiconductors.
