Minatec

Leti’s cleanroom, characterization, and CMOS and MEMS process equipment (and the associated advanced processes) are unique in Europe. While technological resources of this caliber are in high demand among manufacturers, their cost remains prohibitive. It is not unusual for a manufacturer to need just some of the steps in a process, a prototype, or a pre-series of just a few hundred wafers. Now end users, integrators, custom wafer vendors, machine suppliers, and other manufacturers can access these services on demand via the Leti 3 S (Silicon Specialty Solutions) line-up of services.
Leti 3 S services are designed to be easy to understand and rapidly available. They also ensure a seamless interface with a company’s R&D projects. Leti is actively promoting the services, which are expected to attract many new users!

Contact: LETI-3S@cea.fr
 

Movea will leverage research conducted at Leti to develop new solutions to today’s obesity problem. Leti developed motion detection methods capable of identifying different types of physical activity—such as sitting up straight, slouching, standing, lying down, walking, and running. These physical activity data are then sent to a smartphone installed with real-time analysis software. The next phase of the project will entail converting the data into calories burned.
Leti’s system offers several advantages over similar systems currently available on the market. It is more sensitive and reliable—regardless of the user’s position—and it is also more robust, with a 90% correct recognition rate over the 230 hours of testing performed in partnership with a Lyon hospital.

Contact: pierre.jallon@cea.fr
 
 

CIME Nanotech is scaling up its support for research in two new fields. The MEMS and NEMS characterization platform has logged thousands of hours of work, in particular for G2E Lab (which has a research team on-site) and TIMA. The biotechnology platform characterizes fluid MEMS, most notably for LMGP.
Integrated circuit design still accounts for a majority of the work done at CIME Nanotech, growing by a hefty 10% in 2011. Labs based in Grenoble and other cities clocked 80,000 hours on SaaS applications like Cadence, Synopsis, and Mentor Graphics—all of which are managed and maintained by three specialist engineers at CIME Nanotech.

Contact: ahmad.bsiesy@cea.fr
 
 
 

Ensuring that packaging and assembly technologies can be adapted to 450 mm wafers is an emerging issue among microelectronics industry insiders. That’s why SEMI Europe plans to hold a half-day meeting on April 24 to discuss 450 mm and panel-scale packaging technology.
The event will be open to microelectronics equipment, materials, and process suppliers; integrators; foundries; researchers; and students. Participants will get a valuable opportunity to discuss their viewpoints, experiences, and challenges. The meeting will be of particular interest to attendees of the MiNaPAD conference, another event dedicated to packaging and assembly which will take place just after the SEMI Europe meeting

Contact: yguillou@semi.org
 
 

Late 2011 brought four new businesses to the BHT: Advanced Liquid Logic France (labs-on-chip); HelioDEL (power LEDs); Hotblock Onboard (thermoelectricity); and Apix (multigas analysis). Apix, which recently won a national award (including financing) for new innovative technology companies, was officially founded on December 6.
SEM MINATEC Entreprises manages the BHT, which is now home to 22 businesses. Businesses can opt to use the BHT as their official address and benefit from a range of services even if they do not have offices in the building. The four latest start-ups to join the ranks of the BHT chose this option, and will now be working to set up research partnerships with MINATEC labs.

Contact: communicationbht@gmail.com
 

The aerial tram linking Leti’s two main cleanrooms (B41 and B52B, owned by SEM MINATEC Entreprises) opened in October 2010. And so far, so good! Once a few early wrinkles were ironed out in late 2010, the tram exceeded its target of 98% uptime in 2011. The tram makes 120 runs per day—well above the 80 originally forecasted. Users have clearly made the tram part of their day-to-day work habits.
The tram’s ultra-clean environment saves time, as technicians no longer have to change in and out of their gear when moving between the two clean rooms. As a result, certain batches with fabrication steps that alternate between the two buildings can be delivered much more quickly. The savings should ensure a return on the tram investment within three years.
Contact: pierre.caplier@cea.fr
 
 
 

The 13th Ultimate Integration on Silicon (ULIS) conference will be held at MINATEC on March 5–7, 2012. ULIS was the first conference held at MINATEC when the campus opened its doors in 2006.
A slate of international speakers will present the latest advances in integrated circuit and component physics, with a particular focus on CMOS technologies. March 5 will be devoted to tutorials for PhD candidates, researchers, and professionals from industry enrolled in continuing or executive education programs.
The conference is being organized by a consortium of academic and industrial research organizations that spans Europe and includes Leti, IMEP-LAHC, and STMicroelectronics. The conference is also being supported by the Nanofunction network of excellence.

For the full program and to register, visit http://ulisconference.org
Contact: raphael.clerc@phelma.grenoble-inp.fr

 
 

Since the beginning of this year CIME Nanotech has been breaking in its new injection MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) equipment. The main difference with traditional MOCVD is the injector, which sends a pulsed spray of fine droplets of the precursor into the deposition chamber. The precursor is first dissolved in an appropriate solvent, and is then maintained at room temperature for greater stability. The injector is used to control growth rates to a high degree of precision.
The new equipment deposits metals (silver or platinum, for example) or amorphous or crystallized metal oxides (such as yttrium, pewter, aluminum, or silicon, but also supraconducting, ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric materials). It belongs to FMNT (the Federation for Micro and Nanotechnologies) and is currently being used by LGMP for a Minalogic project.

Contact: carmen.jimenez@grenoble-inp.fr
 

Here’s something biologists will be happy about: researches from INAC, Leti, and INSERM have finally developed fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals that retain the majority of their luminescence and remain stable for several months in water. Until now, nanocrystals in water deteriorated in less than a day and quickly lost 90% of their luminescence.
The researchers focused their efforts on hydrophilic ligands made from cysteine to counteract nanocrystals’ hydrophobic tendencies. They strengthened the cysteine-crystal bond by controlling pH levels, and added a reducing agent to inhibit the formation of dimers that reduce luminescence. The study targeted InP-ZnS core-shell nanocrystals, but the results also apply to CdSe, CuInS2, and other semiconductor materials.

Contact: peter.reiss@cea.fr
 

INAC’s magnetic resonance lab (SCIB) has set up shop at the Nanocharacterization Platform’s NMR unit, which recently acquired dynamic nuclear polarization capabilities thanks to new equipment (the world’s third of its kind) operating a 10-Tesla magnetic field.
The lab’s goal is to leverage the enhanced sensitivity (10 to 1,000 times greater than traditional NMR) and substantially shorter measurement times of this emerging characterization technique to make major steps forward in functionalized surface characterization, from discriminating between adsorption and covalent grafting to estimating grafting rates and positioning grafted molecules.
Contact: gael.depaepe@cea.fr