Tech bridging the Causeway

BLENDING academia with tech companies has been the historical success story of Silicon Valley.

Just look at the examples of Google and even today’s top artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI.

Many countries try to mimic this model and Singapore does seem to have made some inroads in this through the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), a 35-year-old government body that seeks to “bridge scientific research with impactful economic outcomes”.

In the semiconductor arena, A*STAR does this for global players who have long made Singapore a big base. US giant Applied Materials, which makes semiconductor equipment, is a good example.

Speaking to the media at the recent “Innovate Together 2026” event in Singapore, A*STAR deputy chief executive, innovation & enterprise Professor Yeo Yee Chia says that the partnership between A*STAR and Applied Materials had resulted in the launch of over 10 global chip manufacturing tools.

A*STAR brought researchers at its research institutes together with R&D personnel at Applied Materials to develop these products, which were then commercialised by the latter.

Interestingly, some of the intellectual property (IP) generated was retained by the research institutions, which could then generate licensing revenue when the technologies were commercialised.

A*STAR with its partners, notes Yeo, have multi-million-dollar R&D joint laboratories. These projects are now getting into the cutting edge technologies in the semiconductor industry, namely advanced packaging, silicon photonics and high-speed optical interconnects.

“Our advanced packaging line of tools is used by Applied Materials to develop their products. They are also developing products using A*STAR’s components. Our components, co-developed with them, goes into their tools. This becomes our pathway to market impact.

“The development of the 10 global chip manufacturing tools would not have been possible without this line. It would have been done elsewhere, and not here,” he says.

Another example is MetaOptics Ltd, a metalens and flat-optics company, which had approached A*STAR as a startup to build its R&D capabilities.

Through A*STAR’s Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) programme, scientists were seconded to MetaOptics.

The team developed a direct laser writer (DLW) for rapid prototyping of metalenses. The collaboration also saw MetaOptics leverage A*STAR’s wafer-fabrication capabilities to develop metalenses on 12-inch glass wafers.

“As a young company, we need a lot of resources, particularly funding and talent support. We have taken part in two T-Up programmes with A*STAR, through which key engineers and scientists were seconded to us to bring our technical capabilities to the next level.

Two of those secondees subsequently joined us full-time in August last year,” MetaOptics Technologies Pte Ltd chief executive officer Aloysius Chua Hao Peng tells StarBiz7.

The model extends to the SHINE research centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS), which brings together universities, A*STAR, the Defence Science and Technology Agency and industry partners to work on a heterogeneous integration.

Professor Aaron Thean, director of SHINE and NUS deputy president for academic affairs and provost, says it is crucial for universities to generate new research, in order to maintain a healthy pipeline of ideas.

“Once the pipeline runs dry, the industry will be in trouble. The United States is facing this problem. For a long time, universities there were not doing enough semiconductor research, and now they are frantically setting up semiconductor schools. When the pipeline is dry, not only are there no ideas, the industry also lacks the people to develop the next generation of technologies.

“This is why a balanced ecosystem is important, with universities producing the talent and ideas, before innovations are brought into Singapore’s National Semiconductor Translation and Innovation Centre, where technologies continue to mature and companies eventually take them into production,” he says.

Thean adds that universities are a “very neutral ground” for collaboration because they do not have the same concerns over IP as companies. He sees opportunities for greater Malaysia-Singapore collaboration, particularly in research and talent development, with Singapore bringing advanced research strengths and Malaysia its industry experience.

“One way is to have joint educational training programmes, where some Malaysian talent can come over. We can also set up co-research activities in Malaysia.

“There should be more efforts to bridge the divide, including incentives on both sides to build greater momentum. There is no reason to compete because we are all filling different gaps in the ecosystem,” he says.

MetaOptics’ partnership with Malaysian testing-equipment maker Elsoft Research Bhd is one such example. MetaOptics expanded its partnership with Elsoft in July to develop equipment for metalens fabrication (fab), testing and module assembly.

The companies began collaborating last year, launching an automatic metalens tester for MetaOptics’ 12-inch glass-based metalens wafers.

Chua says Malaysia’s established semiconductor ecosystem could support a future expansion.

“Malaysia is a very interesting location as it is close to Singapore and has an established semiconductor ecosystem. If we were to set up a foundry here, there is already an ecosystem that could support our equipment.

“Penang, especially, has the talent to operate specialised and expensive semiconductor equipment. We do not have a plant in Malaysia at the moment, but we could potentially set one up in the future,” he says.

For multinational corporations such as Applied Materials, Malaysia is an important part of regional operations, even as Singapore remains a key R&D base.

Applied Materials South-East Asia regional president Brian Tan describes Malaysia as an “important and fast-growing” part of the group’s footprint in South-East Asia.

“This includes making it easier for companies to establish and expand their operations, through streamlined business processes as well as support levels. The country has a well-established semiconductor ecosystem, particularly in assembly and test, together with the peripheral ecosystem that has developed around those activities,” he says, adding that as the country moves into areas, such as IC design and advanced packaging, the ecosystem will also need to expand.

“This entails building the relevant supply-chain capabilities and anchoring key customers and suppliers. There are natural, symbiotic relationships across these different parts of the ecosystem that Malaysia can continue to build on,” Tan says.

GlobalFoundries (GF) is also leveraging the complementary strengths of Singapore and Malaysia, with Singapore providing advanced R&D and Malaysia engineering and manufacturing support.

Tan Yew Kong, senior vice president and general manager of GF’s APAC manufacturing & Singapore site, notes the group has a virtual fab model in Penang providing round-the-clock engineering and manufacturing support to its fabs worldwide.

“Our focus today is to utilise the R&D capability in Singapore. With Malaysia, we are impressed with the technical and engineering talent available. The whole idea is to try to divide and conquer – when we can do something here, we get it done, and the other side helps us with something else,” he says.

Tan stresses that the Penang work is not assembly or testing, but involves digital capabilities supporting engineering, process optimisation and manufacturing across GF’s global network.

The decision to base the virtual fab in Malaysia was driven by semiconductor talent availability, with GF facing shortages in Singapore, the United States and Germany.

“Today Malaysia has quite a bit of semiconductor talent. But they may not want to leave their hometown. So we are reaching out rather than forcing them to come to us,” he says.