INDUSTRY NEWS

Crolles2, LETI ink R&D pact

The Crolles2 Alliance and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have signed a 4-year R&D contract for joint development of 45- and 32-nm and below CMOS technologies. The alliance partners—STMicroelectronics, Philips, and Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola SPS)—will work with CEA's Electronics and Information Technologies Laboratory (LETI) at the recently inaugurated Nanotec 300 fab in Grenoble, France. The new research facility includes 1000 sq m of cleanroom and a suite of 300-mm fabrication and metrology equipment. The research will focus on four key areas: advanced patterning, front-end materials and processes, advanced devices, and back-end materials and processes.

The agreement is an extension of the previous 200-mm CMOS research program between LETI and STMicro in the Grenoble area. The new contract will continue the established collaborative approach, utilizing a permanent exchange of researchers between the teams of the two sites, as well as the exchange of wafers between the two facilities. To optimize the research investment in the original program, the standard CMOS processes will be run at STMicro-Crolles, while LETI will work on the more advanced technologies at its fab. The Crolles2 partners and the French federal, regional, and local governments have earmarked 300 million euros for the project.

Singapore, KLA-T partner

KLA-Tencor and the Singapore Economic Development Board have partnered to establish an international applications and installations engineering group based at the equipment supplier's Woodlands facility. The rapid-response team will serve fabs' on-site support needs throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Financial aspects of the arrangement were not disclosed.

"Establishing this team in Singapore enables us to provide our customers with an added layer of expertise to supplement their own engineering teams when they are needed," explains Chong Chan Pin, KLA-Tencor's Singapore technical director. KiByung Kim, a senior engineer at Samsung's K-2 site in Kyung-ki, South Korea, underscores Pin's statement. "Our group experienced the benefits of (the) international applications staff first-hand at lines 6 through 9. While local resources were engaged on a key Samsung project, the staff provided relief in system evaluation and production-sustaining activities to ensure production continued to run smoothly without delay."

Qcept scores funds and O'Neill

Metrology startup Qcept Technologies has garnered additional funding, added a former Bush administration official to its board of directors, and installed its first tool at a customer site. The Atlanta-based company closed its $4 million Series B funding round in early May. The infusion of cash will be used to continue product development and expand sales. One of the new Qcept investors is O'Neill and O'Neill, a private group led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill (who made headlines earlier this year because of his revelations in Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill). O'Neill and chip industry veteran Gary Arnold also join the company's board.

Qcept installed its first Chemetriq rapid chemical metrology system at DuPont EKC Technology's facility in Hayward, CA. "(The) tool delivers a combination of speed, sensitivity, and ease of use for wafer surface inspection that holds great promise for EKC's mission to deliver next-generation process cleaning solutions and other wafer surface preparation processes," says Michael Fury, DuPont EKC's vp of R&D and engineering. The tool uses contact potential difference imaging (CPDI), a patented method for detecting and mapping subtle, atomic-level chemistry variations across the wafer surface. (For more information on Qcept, see MICRO's April 2004 lead Industry News story.)

Nanodevice firm launches

A team with decades of experience in the MEMS, semiconductor, and nanotechnology industries has launched NanoVance, an Austin, TX–based nanodevice commercialization company. The management team is led by Ellery Buchanan, former executive vice president of the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium (NJNC) and head of Integrated Solutions; Daniel Nelson, most recently director of strategic marketing and corporate technology at August Technology; and Bell Labs veteran Larry Thompson, who comes to the venture after serving as CEO of NJNC.

The company uses a network of "best-in-class" partners to design, develop, manufacture, package, and test its customers' devices. "Our business model mitigates risk for our customers by properly matching the need with resources," explains Nelson, "with NanoVance taking full responsibility from design through packaging."

Program management options include DesignExpress, which takes the customer's idea from the design stage through product development, fabrication, packaging, and testing; ProtoExpress, which starts at the development and prototyping stage and then guides the device through fabrication, packaging, and testing; and FabExpress, which begins with fabrication and then leverages packaging and testing. NanoVance will initially focus on medical/biotech, information technology, data storage, and wireless communications applications.