Technology networking will speed European research

03/01/1999

Technology networking will speed European research

Jean-Charles Guibert

Worldwide, long-term competitiveness and a leading position in microelectronics depend largely on advanced research activities for innovative material and device concepts. As equipment costs increase, however, providing researchers access to appropriate advanced and well-equipped facilities is becoming a challenge. Moreover, in attempting to follow Moore`s law by adhering to a two-year roadmap, there is less time for technology transfer between research laboratories and industry.

Research and manufacturing sectors together thus face two challenges:

 reducing the global time-to- market budget, and

 sharing as many costly infrastructures as possible.

Achieving these goals requires identifying platforms where academic and industrial institutions can jointly study new ideas and their industrial feasibility. At this precompetitive level, technology transfer must continue in a cost-shared structure.

In Europe, we defined two platforms: Hubs and Labs. Hubs cover the major fields of activity required by microelectronics technology. Since they are structured to assess process steps for wafers of different sizes, research results will be shared within common teams, and industrial partners will assume responsibility for transferring the technology to pilot fabs. Labs, by contrast, focus on a specific technology, with limited industrial support.

Physical links between Hubs and Labs provide an additional dimension for the network - the exchange of research staff and wafers necessary to ensure the efficiency of such a "nonvirtual" infrastructure. Furthermore, these exchanges will lay the groundwork for extension to new partners or cross-collaboration between different networks.

This kind of technology network is essential for the future of European research. The US, Japan, and Europe are each setting up consortia with different approaches but similar goals (the US Focus Center Research Program, for example). A new initiative in Europe focuses on providing access to European advanced centers for coordinating and enabling support in long-term silicon research (EURACCESS). EURACCESS will facilitate access to the in-house resources, infrastructure, and technology know-how available at dedicated Hubs and Labs. The opening of these facilities to the European research community will give a significant advantage to the IC industry in terms of just-in-time development, innovation, education, and intellectual property. These research platforms will improve technological competence and support the development of new European ideas.

The technical goals of this project deal with major field aspects like the limits of MOSFET functionality, single-electron transistors, optical interconnections, and other alternative devices. Within these fields, EURACCESS will oversee the execution of advanced processing steps, process modules, and process flows. The organization will also set up and track joint research and development projects, providing members with access to state-of-the-art structural/electrical material and device characterization techniques. It will also support modeling and simulation activities, offering direct access to a large variety of commercially available process, device, and circuit simulators. The program will establish a physical link between wafer Labs and Hubs, the "Wafer WEB," based on an ultraclean transport carrier flow. In practice, this task will be optimized within each partnership by studies and specific contamination control checkpoints.

In the initial phase of this project, coordinated by LETI in France and IMEC in Belgium, we invite laboratories and universities to participate in defining research topics and supporting infrastructural activities. These activities will be proposed to the European Commission for financial support. After this phase, we will issue suggestions for a research-supporting network.

When in operation, EURACCESS will establish a management board and a technical advisory committee to review technology and related activities, and to designate appropriate Hubs and Labs. The organization can then suggest main focus topics, within European fields of excellence, for semiconductor-processing research projects following European Economic Community (EEC)-controlled selection. The strong research nature and innovative character of most of the envisaged projects notwithstanding, the potential for future industrial applicability will be an important selection criterion. Members will also study the most efficient concept for the Wafer WEB. INCAM Solutions, a start-up company in the wafer isolation market, has already committed to the study of global logistics issues. (INCAM has developed carriers for moving wafers from site to site in the network.) In addition, EURACCESS members will define training and education activities, with a specific focus on the exchange of researchers and PhD support for European and international students.

Through this initiative, a 100-300 million Euro multisite cleanroom will be available to researchers and industrial partners for screening new concepts.

Jean-Charles Guibert is microelectronics program manager at LETI. All interested partners should send comments and suggestions to Guibert, ph 33/476-883-581, fax 33/476-885-103, [email protected], or Cor Claeys, IMEC, ph 32/16-281-328, fax 32/16-281-214, [email protected].