imec India partners with Wipro

BANGALORE, INDIA: imec, a nanoelectronics research firm, announced on Wednesday the establishment of imec India in Bangalore with the signing of an R&D partnership agreement with Wipro Technologies.

imec is an independent applied research organization that carries out research activities in semiconductor, nanotechnology and nanoelectronics.

imec and Wipro have created a joint initiative to co-innovate and build next generation intelligent systems, called Applied Research in Intelligent Systems Engineering (ARISE), said a press release.

By bringing together an experienced team of system designers, user designers, process, software and system architects, this initiative aims to develop nanoelectronics and NEMS-(Nano Electro Mechanical Systems) based solutions for emerging markets like India, it added.

The joint initiative will initially focus on developing intelligent systems based on next-generation sensors, wireless and energy harvesting technologies for key industry verticals.

The solutions will leverage imec’s semiconductor process integration platform — CMORE — that offers design, prototyping and low-volume production of systems-on-chip that can combine logic with mechanical, chemical or optical functions, the release said.

Emerging markets consisting of 80 per cent of global population offers great opportunities for intelligent products to be designed ground up to address its unique needs and nanoelectronics is the cornerstone to provide such products, addressing societal challenges like efficient and sustainable healthcare system, sustainable urbanization, and sustainable use of energy, said imec.

“Our partnership with Wipro underlines our commitment towards providing solutions for emerging markets,” said Luc Van den hove, president and CEO imec.

“I’m confident that Wipro’s product engineering expertise, industry vertical presence and understanding of the emerging markets will augment our research capability to develop cost-efficient products for many new markets including India,” he added.

Wipro said the initiative will act as a bridge between industry, academia and research labs to bring in a combination of applied research, system & business design and product engineering capabilities under one roof to deliver highly affordable and sustainable solutions for emerging markets.

“This further underlines our commitment towards solving emerging market challenges through future ready technologies. ARISE will also be a key enabler in reverse innovation of successful emerging market solutions to address the global need,” said T K Kurien, CEO, IT Business & executive director, Wipro Limited.