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An
ASML spokesperson said the company will have a customer support
team for Rapidus, but could not immediately confirm staff
numbers. Nikkei, which first reported the news, said that 50
ASML engineers will install an ASML "EUV" machine on a prototype
line in Chitose City, Hokkaido.
"We always have engineers that support our systems in our
customers' fabs," the ASML spokesperson said, referring to
customers' factories.
Rapidus, which broke ground on its plant in Chitose City on
Sept. 1, is receiving billions of yen in funding from the
Japanese government as it seeks to break into the market for
manufacturing custom-made, leading-edge microchips.
Rapidus is aiming to manufacture chips at the 2 nanometre
process node, which will require using ASML's most advanced EUV,
or extreme ultraviolet, lithography tools to help create the
circuitry of chips.
TSMC, Samsung, Intel and memory chip specialists SK Hynix and
Micron currently manufacture using ASML's EUV tools.
The Nikkei report said ASML is also expanding its existing
support base for TSMC, which is building a major plant in
Kumamoto in Japan.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift, Toby Sterling, Editing by Louise
Heavens and Jane Merriman)
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