Case
Teaching Notes
Supplementary Resources
Abstract
The IMEC case study allows students to discuss open innovation in the context of research organizations with industry partnerships. Johan Van Helleputte, the Vice President of Strategic Management at Interuniversity Microelectrics Center (IMEC), a European research institute that focuses on advanced microelectronics research for applications in the semiconductor industry, is on the verge of presenting a growth strategy to his Board for approval. With the assistance of his team, Val Helleputte had discussed whether to develop an advanced 300 mm wafer research laboratory that would require an investment of more than $1 billion. If a decision were made to go through with this investment, three primary challenges would need to be met: 1) raising the necessary capital to fund the investment, 2) managing the intellectual property arising from the project, and 3) engaging IMEC’s industry partners in the project.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Resources
Exhibit 1: Organization Chart
Source: Courtesy IMEC Strategy Department.
Exhibit 2: Short Biography of Gilbert Declerck, President & IMEC CEO
Gilbert J. Declerck was born in Oostende, Belgium in 1946. He received his doctorate (Ph.D.) degree in Electrical Engineering from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in 1972. From 1973 to 1974, he spent one year at the IC laboratories at Stanford University in California after which he joined the faculty at K.U.Leuven in 1974 and became Professor in 1983. In 1984 he moved to IMEC, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center in Leuven as Vice President of the Advanced Semiconductor Processing Division. He has authored and co-authored over 200 papers and conference contributions.
In 1993, Dr. Declerck was elected fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for leadership and contributions to metal-oxide-semiconductor device physics, charge-coupled device technology, and very large-scale integration processing techniques. In 1998, Dr. Declerck was appointed Chief Operating Officer of IMEC and became the President and CEO of IMEC in June 1999. Dr. Declerck is chairman of the MEDEA+ Scientific Committee and a member of the VRWB (Flanders Scientific Council) and of the ENIAC Scientific Community Council.
Exhibit 3: IMEC’s Proximity to Major Academic Research Institutions in Belgium
| Distance and driving times from IMEC to: | ||
| Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) | 3.0 km | 5 minutes |
| Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende (KHBO) | 52.0 km | 45 minutes |
| Universiteit Antwerpen (UA) | 62.2 km | 56 minutes |
| Universiteit Ghent (U Ghent) | 62.9 km | 57 minutes |
| Universiteit Hasselt (Uhasselt) | 80.1 km | 69 minutes |
| Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) | 83.5 km | 69 minutes |
Source: Casewriter analysis.
Exhibit 4: Selected IMEC’s R&D Partners
Panasonic
DNP
Rohm and Haas
ASML
Micron
Samsung
Tokyo Electron
KLA Tencor
Lam Research
Texas Instruments
Applied Materials
ICOS
Toshiba
IBM
Mentor Graphics
Infineon
FEI
Synopsys
Nikko Materials
Source: Public sources.
Exhibit 5: Research Organization at IMEC
It must be noted that this chart is incomplete and simply shows a snapshot of the types of research programs conducted at IMEC.
Source: Casewriter analysis.
Exhibit 6: Science-Based Entrepreneurial Firms Established by IMEC between 1986 and 2006
UCB Electronics – now integrated in JSR Electronics (1986)
Cobrain (1987) – now integrated in Matrix
Soltech (1989)
Frontier Design (1989)
Easics (1992)
Destin (1993)
Alphabit (1992) – now integrated in Agilent Technologies
Acunia/Smartmove (1996)
Target Compiler Technologies (1996)
SmartPen – LCI (1996)
C-Cam Technologies (1996)
Coware (1996)
Sirius Communications (1996)
Ansem (1998)
Oligosense (1998)
3E (1999)
Q-star test (1999)
Fillfactory (2000)
Septentrio (2000)
Xenics (2000)
Photovoltech (2001)
Vivactis (2001)
Loranet (2002)
Gemidis (2004)
Magwel (2005)
Source: IMEC (2007).
Exhibit 7: Current SEMATECH Member Companies
- AMD, USA
- Freescale, USA
- HP, USA
- IBM, USA
- Infineon/Qimonda, Germany
- Intel, USA
- Micron, USA
- NEC, Japan
- Panasonic, Japan
- NXP (Philips), Netherlands
- Renesas, Japan
- Samsung, South Korea
- Spansion, USA
- Texas Instruments, USA
- TSMC, Taiwan
Source: www.sematech.org.
This case was prepared for inclusion in SAGE Business Cases primarily as a basis for classroom discussion or self-study, and is not meant to illustrate either effective or ineffective management styles. Nothing herein shall be deemed to be an endorsement of any kind. This case is for scholarly, educational, or personal use only within your university, and cannot be forwarded outside the university or used for other commercial purposes.
2023 Sage Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
