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
 

The fourth Junior Scientist & Industry Annual Meeting (JSIAM) will be held at MINATEC on March 30, 2012. The event, organized by GIANT campus students, will give PhD students an opportunity to meet with industry professionals. Some 50 volunteers from businesses like Crocus Technology, bioMérieux, and Soitec participated in the 2011 JSIAM.
The morning session will feature presentations about the role of PhDs in today’s businesses. Next, the Midi MINATEC brown bag lunch talk will showcase the video CVs of participating PhD students. Then, over sandwiches, participating professionals will get a chance to meet our PhD students and discover their poster CVs, which will be on display. The afternoon session will be devoted to panel discussions.

To learn more, visit www.goo.gl/TD1wV  and http://www.minatec.org/jsiam2012.
Contact: francine.papillon@minatec.org
 

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
 
 
 

A nature conservancy in France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region asked Leti to develop a tracker to improve monitoring of the Bonelli’s Eagle, an endangered species. The tracking chip was successfully tested on a vulture, and the miniaturized functional prototype weighs in at less than 50 grams. The tracker has its own power supply and sensors (a magnetometer and an accelerometer) to pick up information on the bird’s activity and feeding patterns, as well as a GPS tracker and radio communication capabilities for the transfer of data to a ground station near the eagle’s nest.
This summer an eagle will be outfitted with a more robust version of the tracker, which is designed to last at least a year. The tracker will help scientists better understand the bird’s habitat and behavior. This new system could eventually be used for other species.

Contact: norbert.daniele@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
 
 

“We need to look at metrics other than the sheer number of patents”

IPT Alliance, a consortium made up of Avenium Consulting, Patev, and ICM Advisor, is rolling out a Europe-wide research program to establish new “patent indicators” for large companies. Can you tell us what this means?
Companies often assess their patent policy by looking at the number of patents held or at licensing revenues. These quantitative metrics are necessary, of course, but they don’t give the whole picture. Likewise, some companies set quantitative patent targets without first having looked at the contribution their patents make to their company’s value. A more comprehensive set of indicators will help us move beyond the “numbers game.”

Do you have an idea of what the indicators will look like?
We have a plan for tackling the issue. First, we will categorize a company’s patents and assess protection by product category (innovative products or products nearing the end of their life cycle), and then we will assess the protection of its flagship products.
We will adjust the indicators to account for a company’s industry, competitive landscape, and strategy. The goal will be to measure the contribution a company’s patents make in terms of business value (market penetration, profitability, and other factors), and to identify possible areas for improvement.

Could research institutes also benefit from a new set of patent indicators?
Obviously, a business thinks in terms of strategy and profits and adopts a short to medium-term outlook. A research institute is different. A decade can go by between the time a patent is filed and the first licensing revenues start to come in. However, a set of indicators for certain patents that are closer to hitting the market would be useful. But the methodology and criteria would have to be different from those used for companies.

Contact: philippe.fornies@avenium-consulting.com
 

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

 
 

Leti and Sofradir have developed an infrared camera prototype capable of producing 1,500 images per second. The camera combines an ultra-fast read circuit with a retina made from an avalanche photodiode matrix offering sensitivity of 0.4 microns to 3 microns. The noise level is under 4 electrons per pixel, resulting in the highest sensitivity and read speed of any infrared camera currently available.
The prototype will be used for the optical correction of wave fronts and the monitoring of interference fringes in astrophysics. With 1,500 images per second, the camera could also be used in new applications like multiparameter imaging, including hyperspectral imaging to capture the spectral content of a given scene (e.g., for gas detection, object recognition, temperature measurement, and defect identification).

Contact: johan.rothman@cea.fr
 

INAC researchers recently worked with a Warsaw-based lab to use pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in addition to magnetometry to study the magnetic properties of a sample of doped polyanilines. They were able to sort and identify the individual spin states (non-coupled or coupled by two, three, or four) in the material, rather than simply measuring a sum of the contributions. The data they gathered will be extremely useful in improving the material’s magnetic properties.
This research aims to help chemists and spectroscopists improve spin coupling in the polymer and to develop new magnetic materials made from plant-based polymers.  
Contact: vincent.maurel@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