July 21, 2009: Representatives CEA-Leti, STMicroelectronics, IBM, and officials from across France have gathered to officially launch the Nano2012 R&D program, a public/private program led by ST to create advanced R&D clusters to develop new semiconductor technologies.

The five-year Nano2012 program (which actually began Jan. 2008, and runs through Dec. 2012) focuses on technology platform development for low-power and application-specific CMOS technologies. “Value-added application-specific derivative technologies are key differentiators to the standard CMOS technology and an important goal of Nano2012 is for the R&D cluster based in Grenoble-Isere to continue as a world leader in this field,” they say in a statement.

Nano2012 joins other European cooperative programs including CATRENE to bolster Europe’s electronics industry “by providing competitive access to the most advanced CMOS technologies from 32nm down to 22nm,” the groups said in a statement. French public authorities are contributing €457M. Besides LETI, ST, and IBM, partners include the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), universities, and many small- and medium- sized enterprise partners.

Since the program began, ST and IBM have swapped researchers between ST’s Crolles site, IBM’s facility in East Fishkill, NY, and included CEA-LETI in projects including 32nm and 28nm CMOS processes, 45nm RF derivative technology for wireless, and 65nm nonvolatile memory derivative technology for auto and smart-card applications.

The partners are longtime collaborators. ST and CEA-LETI set up the Crolles site in 1992; in July 2007 ST joined the IBM-led Joint Development Alliance and IBM paired up with ST in Crolles for application-specific derivative CMOS technologies. IBM and CEA-LETI are also collaborating on process R&D down to 22nm and beyond.