Continuously improving semiconductor manufacturing equipment is essential for producing advanced chips as well as for improving chips along the lines of Moore’s Law. The Netherlands is an important player in this continuous development of material processing technologies, lithography technology, and process- and metrology instrumentation.

Programme duration: 4 years | 2024 - 2027

The present strategic programme connects knowledge institutes with industries in the crucial phase of developing innovative technologies to secure future industrial roadmaps.

This industrial sector has a large economic value, as well as a geopolitical role in the production of chips for the world at large. This sector drives three of the 9 high priority key enabling technologies in the National Technology Strategy (NTS2023):  

1. imaging technology
2. mechatronics and opto-mechatronics
3. optical systems and integrated photonics

This sector has connections with key enabling technologies such as ‘artificial intelligence and data science’ and ‘microelectronics’.