[DigitalToday reporter Suk Dae-geon] Kioxia will join Applied Materials' EPIC Center, a Silicon Valley research facility, as an innovation partner. Applied Materials said on Tuesday the two companies will begin joint research on next-generation memory technology.

EPIC is a research and development facility that commercialises innovations in equipment and process technology, with participation from chipmakers, design companies, equipment partners and universities. Chipmakers can use Applied's R&D portfolio earlier in a secure collaborative environment. Shorter learning cycles also speed up the transition of next-generation technology to mass production. Applied said its collaborative innovation programme can provide visibility across multiple nodes to set the direction of R&D investment and increase R&D productivity and value sharing, the company explained.

The research will cover four areas. It will develop high-performance, high-density memory for AI using advanced memory cell and structure formation technology, and it will address multi-chip stacking technology to increase density within limited form factors. In stacked memory packaging, it will improve the integration level of multi-die memory that bundles multiple chips and the performance of interconnects linking chips. It will also seek materials engineering approaches to secure large-scale manufacturability. The goal is to improve memory density and performance in the AI era, the company said.

Gary Dickerson (게리 디커슨), chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, said, "AI infrastructure needs memory solutions that deliver dramatically higher density, broader bandwidth and improved energy efficiency." He said, "At the EPIC Center, we are building a strong partnership that combines Kioxia's deep memory technology expertise and Applied's materials engineering innovations to redefine what is possible for next-generation memory."

Hideo Ota (오타 히로오), president and CEO of Kioxia, said, "Kioxia has believed that the potential of memory is determined by how far it can expand the limits of materials and process innovation." He added, "We are excited to be able to achieve advanced technology innovation together at the EPIC Center."