CEA/Leti, IBM to ally on nanoelectronics

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: CEA/Leti (the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory of the CEA, based in Grenoble), and IBM announced that they will collaborate on research in semiconductor and nanoelectronics technology.

This five-year agreement is focused on advanced materials, devices and processes for the development of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology for the production of microprocessors and integrated circuits at 22nm and beyond.

With this agreement, CEA/Leti becomes a research associate of IBM and IBM’s semiconductor Joint Development Alliance ecosystem centered in Albany, N.Y. CEA/Leti will reinforce this ecosystem through its specific expertise in low-power CMOS (such as SOI technologies), in e-beam lithography and in nanoscale characterization and modelling. This agreement strengthens the links between the IBM and Crolles-Grenoble ecosystems, following STMicroelectronics’ decision to join the IBM Alliance in 2007, for the development of core CMOS and value-added application-specific derivative technologies and industrialization of these processes.

“Due to increasing complexity, CMOS technologies can only be developed through global alliances. CEA/Leti chose to partner with IBM since its alliance directly benefits companies with strong industrial activity based in Europe,” said Laurent Malier, General Manager of CEA/Leti. “With 22 and 16nm nodes ahead of us, many challenges remain to be tackled and we are strongly committed to speeding up the advent of the best options for these technologies”.

“This agreement reinforces the IBM ecosystem of leading companies and research organizations who are working together to achieve significant advances in semiconductor and nanoelectronics technology,” said Scottie Ginn, vice president, IBM design enablement and packaging. “This unique model of collaborative development can help accelerate the production of more powerful and energy efficient chips for next-generation computers, consumer electronics and mobile devices.”

Complementary expertise

This collaboration will focus on three key areas:

* Advanced lithography for fast prototyping and 22nm chip technology.

* CMOS technologies and low-power devices for 22nm chip technology and beyond.

* Technology enablement, including innovative nanoscale characterization techniques for research and for the monitoring of manufacturing protocols.

This development work will bring complementary expertise to the IBM Research Alliance. Research work will be carried out on CEA/Leti’s 300mm silicon platform in Grenoble, as well as at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany, N.Y., STMicroelectronics’ facility in Crolles, and IBM’s 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. A team from CEA/Leti will be assigned to work on the program at Albany Nanotech.

This agreement reinforces CEA/Leti’s role as a supporter of the European microelectronics industry, as the results of this cooperation will benefit European partners of the IBM Alliance as well as the users of the alliance technology.