Official inauguration of the NanoIC pilot line

 This event will bring together key stakeholders to celebrate this major milestone for Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem. 

On February 9, 2026, imec will officially inaugurate the NanoIC pilot line at its headquarters in Leuven. This initiative represents a landmark achievement for Europe’s semiconductor industry, turning the ambitions of the EU Chips Act into reality.

Backed by a €2.5 billion investment from the European Union, the Flemish government, and industry partners including ASML, the NanoIC pilot line will enable the development of beyond-2nm systems-on-chip, driving breakthroughs in AI, autonomous vehicles, personalized medicine, 6G networks, and quantum computing. It serves as a world-class platform for advanced R&D, an accelerator for innovation, and a training hub for the next generation of semiconductor talent.

As precursors of the NanoIC pilot line, the RRF projects granted to imec on the high-NA lab and the testing and experimentation facility for edge AI, have set the scene. As host of the NanoIC pilot line, imec brings over 40 years of semiconductor leadership and the world’s most advanced 300mm research cleanroom to this initiative. Together with partners CEA-Leti (France), Fraunhofer (Germany), VTT (Finland), Tyndall National Institute (Ireland), and CSSNT-UPB (Romania), we are building the infrastructure that will keep Europe at the forefront of technological progress.

Program

09:30 - 10:00 
Welcome and registration

10:00 - 10:05
Welcome
Katrien Marent, EVP & Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, imec

10:05 - 10:20 
NanoIC pilot line: Beyond-2nm system-on-chip to empower solutions that drive economic growth in Europe 
Luc Van den hove, President & CEO, imec

10:20 - 10:30
Accelerating innovation in the age of AI
Christophe Fouquet, President & CEO, ASML

10:30 - 10:40
Building a stronger European semiconductor ecosystem through a network of Competence Centres
Régis Hamelin, CTO, BLUMORPHO & Coordinator, aCCCess

10:40 - 10:45
Intervention by Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, European Commission

10:45 - 10:50
Intervention by Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of Belgium

10:50 - 11:00
Intervention by Matthias Diependaele, Minister-President of Flanders

11:00 - 11:15
Access to imec's advanced technologies driving Europe's innovation - from NanoIC to EuroCDP
Romano Hoofman, imec

11:15 - 11:45
Official opening of the NanoIC pilot line

12:00 - 13:00
Networking lunch

Speakers

Registration

This event is by invitation only. For questions, contact events@imec.be.

Location

Imec 1
Kapeldreeef 75, Leuven 

The RRF projects granted to imec on the high-NA lab and the testing and experimentation facility for edge AI

Flemish Resilience Project VV021/10
“Miniaturization in Advanced Semiconductor Technologies: Establishment of a High Numerical Aperture (NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Wavelength Lab”

Start Date: 09/01/2021
End Date: 02/28/2026

Digital and industrial leadership combined with ambitious climate goals are the key pillars to maintain Europe’s position as the leading industrial continent in the world. The objective of this project is to enable the relentless miniaturization in advanced semiconductor technologies through further research into new lithographic processes. Imec, together with ASML, is setting up a High NA EUV Lab with the goals of achieving a faster learning cycle for high NA EUV technology, reducing development costs, and accelerating the adoption of high NA in chip production. It will be the only location worldwide where this technology can and will be developed. This project provides funding for the purchase of research infrastructure to expand the Leuven part of the High NA EUV lab. This involves highly advanced, high-tech equipment focused on inspection, characterization, and modelling of extremely small patterns and defects.

The primary impact of this project is to strengthen the global leadership of the imec in process development and industrial introduction of advanced lithography technology. As a fundamental step in chip production (projecting the circuit pattern onto the wafer), control over this step is essential to continue the miniaturization cadence that underpins the entire semiconductor industry.

This project was made possible through the support of the Flemish government and the European Union (RRF).

Flemish Resilience Project VV023/11
“TEFHW4AI (Test and Experimentation Facility Hardware for Edge AI)”

Start Date: 10/01/2022
End Date: 02/28/2026

With regard to the current global acceleration in the “data economy,” it is important to guarantee the technological sovereignty of Flanders and Europe in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Although many applications and services use cloud-based AI services, the rapidly evolving trend of embedding AI at the edge (edge AI) offers a competitive opportunity for European industry. The development of state-of-the-art edge-based AI systems requires the presence of a platform that will allow the European ecosystem to test edge AI components/solutions based on advanced low-power technologies. The high costs associated with purchasing the necessary semiconductor devices and the need for long-term investments have prompted Europe to set up a targeted initiative to offer such a platform to European companies. Imec, Fraunhofer, and CEA-LETI have decided to act as a core group to submit a proposal for the call under the Digital Europe Program for the establishment of a test and experimentation facility (TEF) in the domain of edge AI. This collaboration will give Flanders and Europe access to state-of-the-art advanced low-power technologies. Rapid insight into the performance of their Edge AI R&D prototypes will enable designers/companies of these systems to design an application that meets all specifications more quickly, allowing the final product to reach the market faster. By actively promoting access to the Edge AI TEF platform, imec will encourage the design community to grow. Imec will also continuously explore opportunities to establish and support new spin-offs in this research domain. Furthermore, this project will also allow imec to strengthen its position as a key European player.

This project was made possible through the support of the Flemish government and the European Union (both RRF and DEP grant number: 101083307).