“Japanese export curbs prompt Samsung to source from Leuven company”

Samsung has started sourcing EUV photoresist from an Imec joint venture based in Leuven, Nikkei reports. The Korean chipmaker was forced to diversify its supply chain after the Japanese government began imposing export restrictions on key semiconductor materials, a move instigated by an ongoing discord between the two countries over compensation of Korean forced laborers. According to Nikkei, Samsung secured an alternative supply of photoresist from the EUV Resist Manufacturing & Qualification Center, a Leuven-based joint venture (link in Dutch) between Imec and Japanese material company JSR. Samsung declined to comment.