November 6, 2006 – European R&D consortium IMEC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, to perform joint research on a number of nanoelectronics process areas, a move that helps solidify India’s plans for developing into a semiconductor fabrication center.

Under the proposed collaboration, IMEC and IISc intend to perform joint research on new materials for (sub-)45nm CMOS technologies, as well as nanotechnology for the post-CMOS era, with initial areas of focus potentially to involve RF-CMOS and MEMS. Work will be performed at the IISc’s new international nano-science centre for R&D projects.

IMEC also has plans to work closely with domestic chip group SemIndia, which is pulling together funds and partners to build a foundry in Hyderabad starting next year, with planned ramp-up by 2009. Initial work between IMEC and SemIndia would focus on foundry-compatible 130nm-90nm CMOS processes for logic and mixed-signal products, with a second phase extending the R&D to 65nm and 45nm semiconductor processes.

The two early-stage partnerships illustrate “can make an important contribution to the fast evolution of the Indian semiconductor market,” stated Gilbert Declerck, president and CEO of IMEC. “India’s booming economy and microelectronics market, its large, highly educated workforce and sound legal framework for intellectual property protection form the basic ingredients for successful R&D collaborations with mutual benefits.”