Mayor Lee Sang-il: "Necessary for Strengthening SoBuJang Competitiveness and Expanding the Ecosystem"
Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it will do its best to ensure that the "Advanced Semiconductor Mass Production-Linked Mini-Fab Infrastructure Project," to be established in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu, passes the government's preliminary feasibility study.
Earlier, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the "National Research and Development Project Evaluation General Committee" on the same day and selected this project as a subject for the preliminary feasibility study.
Led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, this project involves the government, Gyeonggi Province, and Yongin City jointly supporting the project costs to create a state-of-the-art "mini-fab" capable of demonstrating semiconductor materials, parts, and equipment (SoBuJang).
A bird's-eye view of the 'Yongin Semiconductor Cluster General Industrial Complex' being developed in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si. [Image source=Yongin-si]
The "mini-fab" refers to a facility equipped with the latest process and performance evaluation equipment for 12-inch wafer-based, up to 10nm-class semiconductors within a cleanroom, where SoBuJang companies can verify the mass production reliability of products they have developed together with semiconductor chip manufacturers.
The project period is from 2025 to 2032, with a budget of 906 billion KRW. The funding will be sourced from 393 billion KRW in national funds, 73 billion KRW in local funds, and 440 billion KRW in private capital. To this end, Yongin City plans to support 40 billion KRW, more than half of the 73 billion KRW local funds, starting next year.
The Ministry of Science and ICT is known to plan to comprehensively analyze technological, policy, and economic feasibility and decide on the project's approval in the second half of the year.
Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin City, said, "To make Yongin the world's leading semiconductor hub city, it is important to strengthen the competitiveness of SoBuJang companies and expand the semiconductor ecosystem," adding, "We will closely cooperate with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to ensure this project passes the preliminary feasibility study."
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