Innovation & R&D
The road to 1.4 nanometers is paved here
Device research, lithography, packaging, and materials science under one roadmap — so the next node is a schedule, not a bet.
$4.2B
Annual R&D investment
11% of revenue, FY2026
9,400+
Patents granted
1,700 filed in the last year
2,900
R&D engineers
Across Chicago, Dresden, and Chandler
2
High-NA EUV scanners
Installed in the Chicago R&D line
Research programs
Six bets on the next decade of scaling
Each program is staffed to production intent — with pilot-line silicon, not slideware, as the exit criterion.
1.4NM-CLASS
SG14 pathfinding
Complementary FET (CFET) device research with our consortium partners, targeting risk production in the early 2030s. Vertically stacked n/p devices promise another full node of density scaling.
POWERVIA-CLASS PDN
Backside power delivery
Moving the power delivery network to the wafer backside frees routing tracks and cuts IR droop by up to 30%. Debuting on SG2, extended to buried rail on SG14.
0.55 NA LITHOGRAPHY
High-NA EUV insertion
Two High-NA EUV scanners are installed in the Chicago R&D line, printing sub-20nm pitches in a single exposure and retiring the most complex multi-patterning flows.
UCIE-NATIVE
Chiplet ecosystem
A UCIe-native die-to-die IP portfolio, known-good-die test methodology, and an open chiplet marketplace with 30+ ecosystem partners.
CO-PACKAGED OPTICS
Silicon photonics
Optical I/O co-packaged with switch and accelerator silicon — 5× the bandwidth density of copper at a third of the pJ/bit.
EXPLORATORY
Cryogenic & quantum
Cryo-CMOS control silicon for quantum processors, developed with national laboratories and university partners in three countries.
Ecosystem
Research is a team sport
Joint labs, sponsored fellowships, and shared pilot-line access with six research universities — plus the imec and SEMATECH-successor consortia.
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Purdue University
- TU Dresden
- Arizona State University
- NTU Singapore
- EPFL Lausanne
The Semiconductor Scholars program commits $150M to train 25,000 engineers by 2030 — funding cleanroom teaching labs, fellowships, and faculty chairs at partner institutions.
Join the R&D organization →