December 17, 2008: Soitec, a supplier of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and other engineered substrates used in the microelectronics industry, reported that Dr. Michel Bruel has received the 2008 Cledo Brunetti Award during a ceremony at IEDM in San Francisco.
As a former researcher of CEA-Leti, one of Europe’s largest microelectronics research institutes, Dr. Michel Bruel is receiving this prestigious award for inventing the Smart Cut layer transfer technology that enabled widespread adoption of SOI for CMOS circuits, and the Soitec success story. Today, Smart Cut technology is supported by over 2000 patents worldwide owned both by CEA-Leti and Soitec, and accounts for 95% of all SOI production wafers.
Bruel’s invention is a cost-effective process of atomic precision for slicing an ultra-thin layer and transferring it to another support. As such, it was the critical, pioneering step towards large-scale production of high-quality, high-volume SOI wafers. Today, the success of the Smart Cut technology can be attributed to its suitability for high-volume manufacturing; its inherent flexibility which enables substrates to be tailored to customer requirements; its scalability for future roadmap requirements; its applicability to any wafer diameter and material; and its use of standard IC manufacturing equipment.
“My colleagues at Soitec and throughout the industry join me to heartily congratulate Dr. Michel Bruel on winning the IEEE’s Cledo Brunetti award,” said Dr. Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, President and CEO of the Soitec Group. “His invention of the Smart Cut technology paved the way for SOI wafers to become the starting material of choice for leading chipmakers, enabling them to better address key issues such as lowering power consumption and increasing performance.”
The Cledo Brunetti Award was established in 1975 and is presented by the IEEE Board of Directors on the recommendation of the Technical Field Awards Council and the Awards Board, for outstanding contributions to miniaturization in the electronics arts. In the evaluation process, the following criteria are considered: innovation or development, social value, uniqueness of concept, other technical accomplishments, and the quality of the nomination. It may be presented each year to an individual or a team of not more than three. The award consists of a certificate and honorarium.