TU/e’s current cleanroom is in urgent need of replacement, partly because the wide slab flooring in Spectrum, the building that houses the cleanroom (see main photo), is due for repair. Three years ago, the Executive Board estimated that about 43.7 million euros would be required to build a new cleanroom.
This morning, the Eindhovens Dagblad reported on ASML’s intention to build a new cleanroom. It appears that the ED has based this report on a “prior publication” by TU/e on the matter. This publication already contains a lot of information on how the university and ASML will approach this construction project.
The new building will include a state-of-the-art cleanroom, research areas and workplaces. Within the facility, one section of the building will be used for ASML’s research, another section will be reserved for joint research projects, and there will also be a section of the building where ASML will offer TU/e “the possibility to accommodate its own cleanroom facility.” TU/e will have full control over its own section, which it will rent from ASML. According to spokesperson Ivo Jongsma, ASML will bear all building costs. For the site on which the building will be constructed, ASML will receive right of use from TU/e.
With this new building, ASML and TU/e intend to further intensify their scientific collaboration. Discussions on the project are still ongoing at the moment and Jongsma says that more information will be available by the end of April at the earliest.
Building a personal network
Regarding the facility where ASML and TU/e will conduct their joint research, the publication states that bachelor’s and master’s students who will make use of this facility will “not only be given a unique opportunity to acquire skills that are directly relevant to the Brainport industry, but also a personal network to be able to seamlessly continue their careers in the industry if they so wish”. Because this is a place where current and future generations of engineers will meet and learn from each other, it reads. Therefore, the new cleanroom also offers ASML the opportunity to get in contact with possible future employees at a very early stage. This is something the Veldhoven-based company, which also plans to grow significantly in the coming years, is in dire need of.
The new state-of-the-art facility will also be available to the partners involved in Brainport education that collaborate with TU/e. “This will strengthen the appeal to become a student in these technical fields and increasing the student numbers is vital for both the Brainport region and the Netherlands as a whole,” the publication states. As such, it will also bolster TU/e’s own growth ambitions, the so-called upscaling plans.
Location
Exactly where the building will be located, when construction will start and the exact size of the building are not yet known. “We’ve collaborated with TU/e for many years now, bridging the gap between groundbreaking research and innovative technology,” said an ASML spokesperson. “We’re currently looking for ways to consolidate this successful collaboration for the future. One option is to construct a building with a cleanroom on TU/e’s campus. Together with TU/e, we hope to be able to reveal more about this in the coming months.”
The university plans to award the contract to build that new cleanroom directly to ASML, by way of the new building that is to be constructed. TU/e published a so-called “voluntary ex-ante transparency notice” on this so that others would have the opportunity to object to the contract award if they so wished.
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