INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION POLICY IS NEEDED TO KEEP EUROPE IN THE LEAD IN THE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY RACE European innovation successfully strengthened by MEDEA+, CATRENE and AENEAS
Paris, 3 December, 2008 -
The European Nanoelectronics Forum 2008, was held in Paris on December 2 and 3, and successfully gathered more than 300 key players from the field. It was a common event organized by MEDEA+ / CATRENE, the EUREKA cluster programmes, ENIAC, the European Technology Platform on Nanoelectronics and AENEAS, the Association of R&D actors in nanoelectronics.
During the Forum, a clear message was sent out on the importance of creating a European industrial innovation policy to maintain Europe’s knowledge leadership in advanced micro- and nanoelectronics, and also of forming strong alliances for its implementation.
"The time to act is now. To remain at the top when it comes to innovation, the European Semiconductor Industry must cope with a changed landscape. Europe’s economy will become increasingly knowledge-based. In order to fulfil the objectives of the Lisbon strategy and sustain our European core values, we must keep the command of semiconductor technology, which underpins the developments of the Information Society. The European Semiconductor Industry has already proven its capabilities and is leading the market in several fields such as wireless components and automotive electronics. We must keep this momentum and increase it in several other fields, keeping our vision alive even in these difficult times." said Alain Dutheil, President of AENEAS.
The Semiconductor Industry is in fact crucial for European economic growth and prosperity as it directly enables approximately 10% of the global GDP. Yet, traditional technology leaders such as Europe, the USA and Japan, are faced with the rise of emerging competitors that are successfully attracting international business with financially advantageous operating conditions. And this is not the only challenge. Closer to home, the European economic environment is proving to be less and less adapted to globalised worldwide markets. The European Semiconductor Industry can only be competitive if it competes in the same local economic and policy environment as the other semiconductor regions in the world.
Large European industrial alliances have been formed to address European competitiveness in the sector. For nearly twenty years, programmes such as JESSI, MEDEA and MEDEA+, and today the new programmes CATRENE and the ENIAC Joint Undertaking have made significant contributions to establishing and maintaining European leadership in nanoelectronics R&D ranging from smart card and image sensing technologies to automotive electronics. They embrace all key actors in the value chain – including applications, technology, materials and equipment suppliers – as well as involving industrial companies of all sizes, universities and other research institutions and Public Authorities.
Today, however, they are all raising the same concerns for the future of this crucial sector for Europe.
The Chairman of CATRENE, Enrico Villa, stated that "The common vision of the industry is to reinforce the global competitive position of the European electronic food chain by leveraging its competitive advantages and its local industrial infrastructure", but he also reminded that "competitiveness in today’s changing landscape requires adaptation. Europe’s Semiconductor companies and all the associated players are working on this by reassessing their strategies, by forming new alliances for research and by developing new market opportunities linked to social needs with a high technology potential".
It is important that a common European industrial innovation policy for the entire Semiconductor value chain be established, not only with the collaboration of R&D actors but also with the full support of the European Commission and National States.
As stipulated in the recent "ESIA 2008 Competitiveness Report", such a policy should redefine technology and business strategies for the Semiconductor industry and include four important pillars: an enlarged effort on R&D and an increase in R&D funding; a renewal in semiconductor manufacturing; the creation of new market opportunities; and a focus on attracting a highly skilled work-force and encouraging more students to complete technological studies. By inciting a clear vision, the semiconductor industry can create new markets and concentrate on maintaining advanced knowledge leadership.
SMES, REAL WINNERS IN THE MEDEA+ PROGRAMME The MEDEA+ programme has proven to be an ideal frame for the integration of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the industrial landscape.
Paris, 20 August, 2008 - Drawing on the major successes of the MEDEA+ programme, Enrico Villa, Chairman of MEDEA+ and CATRENE, highlighted: “Partner groups in MEDEA+ are quite balanced: one third are large companies, one third universities and institutes and one third are SMEs. The majority of the corresponding 200 SMEs are involved in two or more projects. On average, around 100 SMEs per year have dedicated engineering resources to MEDEA+ projects, with each SME providing between 3 and 5 person-years per year and this throughout the whole 8 years of the MEDEA+ programme. With 51% participation and 45% contribution of involved SME resources, the French SMEs are the champions in this partner group”. The Chairman went on to highlight that SMEs are attracted to three work-areas in particular: lithography with 16% of all SME person-years spent, electronic design automation with 21% and next generation CMOS process technology with 29%. He concluded: ”During the past two decades, structural changes in the economy have created essential opportunities for SMEs. They are dynamic, flexible and quickly adapt to new situations, employing the advantages of niche markets and frequently aiming at being involved in or even producing specialised products. Most of their innovation power is based on IPs and patents that can be securely exploited within the frame of MEDEA+ projects. We welcome and encourage SMEs to further enhance their engagement in the new CATRENE programme”.
SMEs, defined as having fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding 50 M€, are forming a major part of Europe’s economy. Around 23 million SMEs in the European Union are providing some 75 million jobs and represent 99% of all enterprises. SMEs, being the key part of Europe’s industry, are an efficient source for job creation and innovation, and as such are largely contributing to economical welfare and social cohesion.
MEDEA+, the biggest cluster programme in EUREKA, has successfully focused European advanced co-operative Research and Development in micro- and nanoelectronics to ensure Europe’s technological and industrial competitiveness on a world-wide basis. The programme has concentrated on enabling technologies for the Information Society and has significantly contributed in making Europe a leader in System Innovation on Silicon. The programme will conclude at the end of 2008 and will be succeeded by CATRENE, the Cluster for Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics.
MEDEA+ ENTERS ITS CLOSING YEAR WITH FLYING COLOURS Success paves the way for new European R&D Champion, CATRENE
Budapest, 27 November, 2007 -
At the MEDEA+ Annual Forum, held in Budapest on November 26/27, an impressing success story on major achievements in micro- and nanoelectronic innovations was delivered. In the rapidly changing global industrial landscape, Europe’s high-tech industry is exposed to ever-increasing technological, economical and societal challenges but has a clear vision on how to exploit new market opportunities.
Out of the 77 labeled MEDEA+ projects, representing about 20 000 person-years, some 48 projects have already been successfully completed and another 9 projects will finish at year end, while another 20 projects will continue in 2008 or even beyond.
Currently, 465 partner organizations from 22 countries are involved in project consortia and the trans-national nature of MEDEA+ is illustrated by the fact that, on average, partners for a project come from five different countries.
"MEDEA+ is perfectly in line with the planning," commented Jozef Cornu, MEDEA+ Chairman. "It has delivered important results in applications ranging from wireless communications to smart cards and automotive electronics, helping European industry to maintain leading positions in these strategic global industries. These results are a tribute to efficient culture and infrastructure of cooperation developed by MEDEA+ and the preceding MEDEA and JESSI programmes."
To maintain the momentum of the programme, MEDEA+ stakeholders jointly decided in May to launch another call for project proposals. This call resulted in 24 project outlines, clearly demonstrating industry’s continued commitment to substantial investment in Research and Development (R&D). The project evaluation process will finish with the project labeling at the end of 2007. This may top-up required resources of the programme by another 10%. With a programme duration of eight years, MEDEA+ will elapse at the end of 2008.
Chairman Cornu also highlighted the new EUREKA strategic initiative, called CATRENE, "Cluster for Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics", launched October 25, 2007. This cluster-programme embodies the ambition of Europe and European companies to deliver nano- and microelectronics solutions that enable "Lighthouse Projects". Lighthouse projects address large and global socioeconomic needs such as transportation, healthcare, security, energy, environment, entertainment and communications. They also reflect a clear vision of the technical challenges and of the expected benefits and economic returns and are at the heart of public needs.
The principal added value of the lighthouse projects will be the ability to create a critical mass in terms of R&D scope, effort, participation and support from public authorities around well-understood societal and technical challenges. Experience has shown that the lighthouse philosophy is the way European leadership positions can be built. From those global lighthouse projects, nanoelectronic applications will be defined with the technologies needed to enable them. "For example, direct communication between objects - the internet of things -", said Jozef Cornu, "will become a reality as more and more objects in our environment become intelligent and generate ever more data."
CATRENE, which will build on the highly successful European MEDEA+ nanoelectronics programme, will start in January 2008, with the first call for project proposals expected in the first half of 2008.
"We are concentrating on lead markets, where nanoelectronics will make the difference, and CATRENE is the Research and Development program that will make those technology and application developments happen", concluded Jozef Cornu.
Taking advantage of experience gained, the same team will manage the overlap between the end of MEDEA+ and the ramp-up of the CATRENE programme to ensure full continuity in research and continued efficiency.
CATRENE PROGRAMME TO SUCCEED MEDEA+ AS EUROPEAN NANOELECTRONICS R&D CHAMPION
Paris, 26 October, 2007 - MEDEA+, the EUREKA pan-European Programme for advanced co-operative Research and Development in Microelectronics, today announced details of the new EUREKA programme called CATRENE (Cluster for Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics) that will take Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics) that will take up the challenge of increasing Europe’s strength in micro- and nanoelectronics after the highly successful MEDEA+ programme reaches its conclusion in 2008. A public/private partnership aimed at ensuring the continued development of European expertise in semiconductor technology and applications, CATRENE will build on the success of MEDEA+ and the previous EUREKA programmes JESSI and MEDEA in fostering the continued development of a dynamic European ecosystem with the critical mass necessary to compete at a global level in high technology industries as these move into the era of nanoelectronics.
Since its inception in 2001, MEDEA+ has made significant contributions to establishing and maintaining European leadership in fields ranging from smart card and image sensing technologies to automotive electronics. European IC companies have successfully developed three basic CMOS process generations in a time schedule in line with or even ahead of the global ITRS roadmap. Three European semiconductor companies are ranked amongst the world wide top ten and Europe’s semiconductor industry has 10% of the world wide market. European champions with a strong global market position as wafer processing equipment suppliers, lithography tool and infrastructure suppliers as well as substrate and material suppliers have been added to the industrial landscape.
Like MEDEA+, CATRENE embraces all key actors in the value chain – including applications, technology, materials and equipment suppliers – as well as involving industrial companies of all sizes, universities and other research institutions, supported by Public Authorities. In this way CATRENE will benefit from the strong infrastructure for cross-border cooperation that has been developed by MEDEA+ and its predecessors.
An important feature of CATRENE is the concept of Lighthouse Projects, which address major socioeconomic needs such as transportation, healthcare, security, energy and entertainment through focussed R&D programmes. In the foreseeable future, the role of electronics and information systems will further increase as European society is faced with structural problems such as ageing of the population, exploding healthcare cost, transportation bottlenecks, rising energy costs and the need to increase productivity to be competitive on a worldwide basis. These societal challenges are also major opportunities for European industry and are designed to help European companies to address these new lead markets and to become worldwide market leaders. The “umbrella” lighthouse projects will serve as a focus for specific technology and applications development projects that address these challenges.
“For more than a decade, the EUREKA JESSI, MEDEA and MEDEA+ programmes have made it possible for Europe’s industry to reinforce its position in semiconductor process technology, manufacturing and applications, and to become a key supplier to markets such as telecommunications, consumer electronics and automotive electronics”, said Jozef Cornu, Chairman of MEDEA+ and designated Chairman of CATRENE. “Nanoelectronics will offer enormous opportunities to those who are the first to master and bring to market new technologies and applications and we believe that CATRENE will play a vital role in helping Europe’s microelectronics industry to go from strength to strength.”
While the JESSI, MEDEA and MEDEA+ programmes were divided into technology and applications sub-programmes, CATRENE recognises the increasing convergence of technology and applications. It will therefore focus on large identified application markets, deriving from these the roadmap of required technologies. Key technology goals include maintaining and increasing Europe’s strength in IP (Intellectual Property) across the entire electronics supply chain and its leadership in lithography and Siliconon-Insulator materials; ensuring that European companies are among the world leaders in the advanced semiconductor technologies that allow entire systems to be integrated in a single package; and strengthening European expertise in applying a deep knowledge of semiconductor process technology to efficient design for new electronics applications.
MEDEA+, the industry-driven pan-European programme for advanced co-operative Research and Development in micro - and nanoelectronics (EUREKA 2365) has announced its final and last call for project proposals opening 15 May, closing 29 August 2007.
MEDEA+, the industry-driven pan-European programme for advanced co-operative Research and Development in micro - and nanoelectronics (EUREKA 2365) has announced its final and last call for project proposals opening 15 May, closing 29 August 2007.
Decision on project labelling will be taken on 18 December 2007 following an extensive evaluation and selection process. First project starts are anticipated from January 2008 onwards.
Information and guidelines for preparation of projects are accessible during this time on http://www.medeaplus.org/
"Considering the pace of the technical evolution in the nanoelectronics domain and the resulting business challenges for Europe’s high tech industry", said Jozef Cornu, Chairman of MEDEA+, "we have to fully exploit the time-frame awarded to the MEDEA+ programme (2001-2008). This also means that projects started may continue their implementation even after 2008".
With already 47 ended and 30 still active projects, resulting from the three calls of MEDEA+ phase 1 and the two calls of phase 2, with the involvement of over 380 organisations and, an average of 2500 researchers per year, MEDEA+ has proven to be the leading European programme in micro - and nanoelectronics supported by industry and European governments.
MEDEA+ APPOINTS NEW CHAIRMAN MEDEA+ announces Jozef Cornu as its new Chairman, following Arthur van der Poel, who decided to step down from this function per end of February.
Paris, 1 March, 2007 -
Mr. Cornu, born in 1944, was awarded degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven and subsequently received the Ph.D. in Electronics from Carleton University in Ottawa. He started his career in research in semiconductors in the Brown Boveri (now ABB) research center in Switzerland.
In 1973 he joined the Belgian subsidiary of ITT, Bell Telephone, and became in 1982 General Manager of the newly formed semiconductor company Mietec, jointly owned by Bell Telephone and the Flemish Investment Company. In 1984 he was appointed General Manager of Bell Telephone and member of its Board of Directors. With the acquisition of the European ITT subsidiaries by Alcatel end of 1987, Jozef Cornu became member of the Board of Management of Alcatel NV. In 1995 he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel Telecom and member of the Alcatel Executive Committee.
In his capacity as advisor to the chairman of Alcatel in 2000, Mr. Cornu has been appointed as member of the Board of Directors of Alcatel S.A. Recently Mr. Cornu has been appointed as a member of the board of Directors of Alcatel-Lucent. He is also a board member of KBC Group, Agfa Gevaert, Barco and Arinso International.
Since 2005 Jozef Cornu is Chairman of the IST Advisory Group of the European Commission and contributing in this function to reshape Europe’s economy and society to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
His international experience, knowledge and expertise will ensure a continuation of the high profile chairmanship in MEDEA+.
NEW MEMBERS IN MEDEA+ MANAGEMENT TEAM MEDEA+ announces two major changes in its management team:
Paris, 11 January, 2007 -
Guy Dubois has been appointed new MEDEA+ Office Director, following Gerard Matheron. Mr. Matheron having served as Office Director in MEDEA and MEDEA+ for over 8 years has accepted a new assignment within STMicroelectronics.
Guy Dubois has started his professional career in 1968 as engineer for semiconductor process and device R&D at Thomson. In 1978 he joined the manufacturing organisation of Thomson Semiconductors and became after the merge of Thomson Semiconductors and SGS Microelettronica in 1987 a Group Quality Manager of the newly formed STMicroelectronics. In 1990 he was promoted Plant Manager in Rennes and returned back to Grenoble as Operations Manager in 1994, subsequently taking care of several management functions in the company’s international engagement. As Group Vice President, Guy Dubois has been responsible since 2005 for Strategic Projects, Front End Technology and Manufacturing in STMicroelectronics.
Eberhard Schmid has been appointed MEDEA+ Vice-Chairman Applications, after Juergen Deutrich has stepped down from this position at year end 2006.
Having passed the degrees in electrical engineering at Stuttgart Technical University, Eberhard Schmid has started his industrial career in 1979 within Siemens Component Division in Munich. In 1985 he joined Robert Bosch GmbH, where he has been in charge of several management positions for R&D in automotive electronics. In 1989 he was promoted Vice President in charge of development of application specific semiconductors for all semiconductor activities of the Bosch Group, from which he retired end of 2003.
Based on their solid background, team spirit and expertise, the two new MEDEA+ team members will ensure the continuation of job performance and high profile of their predecessors.
MEDEA+, A RECOGNISED SUCCESS FACTOR FOR EUROPEAN INNOVATION MEDEA+, the leading pan-European collaborative R&D programme in nano-electronics, continues to build on major technological achievements, ensuring that Europe maintains its global position in a cornerstone industry. The industry can look back on a successful 2006, with solid growth rates and substantial investments in capital and R&D. Concerning its future, the MEDEA+ stakeholders have a clear vision for a programme beyond MEDEA+.
Monaco, 29 November, 2006 - At the occasion of the MEDEA+ Forum 2006, the MEDEA+ Chairman Arthur van der Poel proudly referred to a number of breakthrough innovations achieved in the MEDEA+ programme, highlighting the importance of the nano-electronic industry as driver for Europe’s economic growth and as pacemaker for fulfilling needs and expectations of Europe’s society at large.
Over 300 Forum participants were informed on the steadily growing number of MEDEA+ partners, which has currently surpassed 400 entities from 22 countries. On a cumulative basis, since the start of the programme in 2001, these organisations have invested to-date 18 000 person-years in 75 projects, out of which 44 have successfully ended.
• Projects in automotive electronics essentially contribute to platform development and de-facto standardisation. • Projects in wireless communications are playing a key role in the development of applications and technologies to improve performance, boost security and reduce power consumption. • Projects in smart cards technologies are instrumental in keeping Europe at the leading edge of smart cards developments and maintaining manufacturing in Europe. • Projects in EUV lithography were boosting the impact and image of Europe’s EUV lithography engagement on the international stage impressing US and Asian competitors and potential customers alike. • Projects on 90nm and 65nm node technology created not only a solid on-par situation with other regions, but gave impetus and enthusiasm to Europe’s nanoelectronics industry to collaborate on the next technology step: 45nm.
“European R&D in nano-electronics today is at world class level”, the MEDEA+ Chairman concluded, “but if Europe wants to be in control of its own destiny, then Europe has to continue to fight for high quality R&D on European soil”.
Europe’s nano-electronics industry is ready for this challenge. Preparations for a successor programme of MEDEA+ (ending in 2008) are well on track. This programme will have the double task of securing high quality R&D capabilities and infrastructures in Europe and providing technologies and solutions to address society needs affordably.
Both industry and Public Authorities recognize the powerful role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), reducing cost, time and risks in the development of enabling technologies and applications. A ‘White Book' describing the details of the programme will be released by summer 2007.
The new programme will be an integral part of a global industrial vision at European level: the Strategic Research Agendas (SRA) on Nano-electronics (ENIAC) and Embedded Systems (ARTEMIS). The MEDEA+ successor programme will emphasise or de-emphasise areas, within the defined overall scope, depending on the political decision making for other Public Private Partnership programmes at national and European level. In preparation of the Beyond MEDEA+ Programme, a structure has been outlined to map technology challenges with society needs.
While the decision on ENIAC and ARTEMIS JTIs is expected in 2007, MEDEA+ is prepared to continue supporting the Office related activities of the ENIAC JTI. Already today the ENIAC office is hosted within the MEDEA+ Office premises.
UPCOMING DEADLINE FOR MEDEA+ CALL FOR PROJECT PROPOSALS May 10, 2006 has been defined as the deadline to submit the last proposals pertaining to the 5th MEDEA+ call opened on June 06, 2005.
Paris, 24 April, 2006 - Already submitted proposals reveal that MEDEA+, the EUREKA cluster programme for innovative European research and development in microelectronic technologies and applications will once again enlarge its number of collaborative partners from medium and small sized companies, from institutes, universities and academic institutions. "We are pleased with both the number of and the quality of projects submitted as part of this call," said Gérard Matheron director of the MEDEA+ Office. "With an average level of 2000 researchers/year involved in these projects, the industry’s continuous commitment to invest in innovation, research and development for the benefit of Europe at large is clearly demonstrated. And the quality of the proposals received is proof that Europe’s micro- and nanoelectronic industry is maintaining its high tech domains."
Though the MEDEA+ programme will end in 2008, this call will not be the last one of the programme. Another call will be opened in the last quarter of 2006, details of which will be announced in due course. And since resulting projects will most probably extend beyond 2008, respective time extensions will be granted by the EUREKA organization to all projects labelled by MEDEA+.
MEDEA+ TRIGGERING DEBATE ON A SUCCESSOR-PROGRAMME With industry driven programmes such as JESSI, MEDEA and MEDEA+, Europe’s capabilities in micro-/nanoelectronics R&D have been built up and Europe successfully managed to become a world player in a fierce competition capturing innovative domains. MEDEA+ being one of Europe’s key-enablers for innnovation and thereby for economic growth and employment, and ending in 2008 starts thinking about its future role and perception.
Barcelona, 22 November, 2005 - With more than 300 participants from all over Europe, MEDEA+ Forum 2005 held in Barcelona on November 21 and 22 has registered a peak of visitors and partners from industry, small and medium sized companies, from universities and institutes, from Public Authorities and Ministries. In his opening speech, MEDEA+ Chairman Arthur van der Poel draw a positive balance on the past 12 months. He noted that 350 partners from 21 countries have spent almost 14 000 person-years in the execution of 70 projects, whereby 34 of them have successfully ended already. He illustrated some project achievements, amongst those the 2005 – winner of the ‘Jean-Pierre Noblanc Award for Excellence’: the project Pocket Multimedia. Its results deliver excellent multimedia performance, consuming very low power whilst using multimedia processors, organic LED technology and tiny operating elements based on MEMs technology. The business perspectives are going far beyond initial expectations.
A vivid impression on MEDEA+ activities was given in the Poster- and Demo- sessions, where project leaders and experts presented latest achievements and technical results. Prominent keynote speakers gave their views on technical evolutions and market trends, both globally and with a particular emphasis on two very promising areas where Europe may gain importance: microtechnologies for lab-on-chip and security of the IT systems.
Today, PPPs (Private-Public-Partnerships) are considered as valuable instruments to help Europe facing the incoming competitiveness challenges through increased research, development and innovation in particular within industry. Means to make it happening were already existing at local/regional, national and European Community level, but the need for better collaboration of the various initiatives has been recently reactivated. MEDEA+ is actually an essential ring in the chain linking all innovation activities throughout Europe in the nanoelectronics domain.
For instance, MEDEA+ joined from the very beginning the preparation of European Technology Platforms (ETPs) proposed by the European commission in the Framework 7 to gather all the stakeholders in carefully selected areas. MEDEA+ is actively contributing to the set-up of ARTEMIS (Embedded Systems) and ENIAC (Nanoelectronics), the 2 ETPs closely related to MEDEA+ applications and technologies domains. The Strategic Research Agendas defined by ARTEMIS and ENIAC will serve as roadmaps for any R&D initiative in Europe.
In addition, there is a growing interest for reactivating national support in the form of PPPs aiming at focusing available resources in ‘geographic local clusters’, named in France for instance ‘Poles de Competitivite’. Those will have to be networked at the European level to address global markets and MEDEA+ or its successor programme may be instrumental for that purpose.
The debate on ‘Beyond MEDEA+’ is therefore open about its actual extension and technical content, but it is already clear that the synergism between the various schemes in preparation has to be established and that the MEDEA+ community will play a pivotal role there.
Paris, 20 September, 2005 - With the 5th release of the MEDEA+ Roadmap for Electronic Design Automation (EDA), key areas of design and research are highlighted keeping the European Semiconductor Industry on the leading edge and providing an intriguing glimpse into the future of Design Automation.
Approaching the era of nano structures it appears that the times of “happy scaling” are reaching their end. New design flow paradigms and strong links between System Level Design and Design for Manufacturability (DfM) are becoming mandatory to master new technologies and to slow down the increasing design gap which has persisted for many years.
This latest roadmap release joins prime knowledge of a network of European Design experts from industry, research institutes and universities and confirms that DfM and further progress in SoC and SiP are all amongst vital areas of research.
The new roadmap addresses these challenges and extends its scope to the MEMS domain that represents a major pillar of the “embedded systems driven” European Semiconductor Industry and the need for “Smart Systems Integration Technology”.
The roadmap is available for downloading from the MEDEA+ public website, but also available on CD-Rom on written request.
Paris, 6 June, 2005 - MEDEA+, the industry driven pan-European programme for innovation and advanced cooperative Research and Development in nano/ microelectronics (EUREKA S! 2365) is launching the next Call for project proposals (2nd call, 2nd phase), open from 06 June 2005 onwards. There is no specific closing date for the Call. As such, Project Outlines can be submitted at any time, and will be evaluated continuously. The 2nd Call is open to all work areas of MEDEA+ White Book 2, proposals pertaining to work areas so far not well covered by projects are more than welcome. It is the aim, that Project Outlines submitted until August 20, 2005, and subsequent Full Proposals, if found eligible, will have passed the full evaluation and selection process and will have received the MEDEA+ label before end of this year. It can be assumed that these projects will start in the first half of 2006.
MEDEA+ expects that an open Call with a continuous evaluation process of proposals will enable all stakeholders to better exploit synergies in trans-border cooperation. Related information and guidelines for preparation are accessible on the MEDEA+ public web-pages www.medeaplus.org.
Paris, 25 May, 2005 - Les Mesnuls (France), May 24-26, 2005 - In mass markets, application oriented design methods for “System on Chip” are an increasingly important success factor. They are decisive for productivity and earliest marketing. Exhaustive research and development in this area supported within MEDEA+ by public and private partnership is fundamental for a leadership position of Europe’s nanoelectronic manufacturers.
“What is at stake for Europe is to master the design and manufacturing of the most complex dedicated circuits in the most advanced technologies and with as short as possible time to market”, said Arthur van der Poel, MEDEA+ Chairman, when opening the conference. In front of almost 100 experts from industry, SMEs and academia van der Poel highlighted MEDEA+’s full commitment to EDA, emphasising that 20% of resources spent in the frame of the programme are currently dedicated to projects in design automation. In addition, an updated version of the MEDEA+ EDA Roadmap will be released in the second half of this year.
Two keynote speeches gave an inside view on EDA design integration into new nano-electronics processes as well as on mega trends of the semiconductor markets. The seven technical sessions of this year’s conference address platform based design, heterogeneous design and design for manufacturing, the latter becoming the main challenge in chip design when coming to structures below 45 nm. Accompanying tutorials highlight latest achievements of EDA issues in signal integrity and reliability, security applications, IP platforms, system level design and mixed signal verification and test.
MEDEA+, working presently on 12 EDA projects, gives an illustrative impression on how to manage both technical and economical challenges, thus safeguarding the electronics industry’s competitiveness in Europe.
EUROPEAN ADVISORY BOARD ON MASKLESS LITHOGRAPHY INSTALLED BY MEDEA+
Paris, 10 January, 2005 - Recently, MEDEA+ has installed a European Advisory Board on Maskless Lithography (EAB-ML2). The objective of this Board is to provide guidance to the various European initiatives on maskless lithography.
As lithography continues to drive Moore’s Law, the increasing mask costs tend to constrain the economic viability of new technology generations. Presently, several European consortia are in various stages of developing tools for maskless pattern definition. Different concepts are under development, based upon either particle optics or photons. Also a number of ideas on beam modulating devices are being tested. In all cases, effective and reliable imaging will require enormous data transfer rates.
The EAB-ML2 will serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas between suppliers and users, and explore application scenarios for the implementation of maskless lithography. The equipment manufactures represented in the EAB –ML2 are ASML, Leica Microsystems, and MAPPER Lithography. ASML aims at a maskless extension of the optical roadmap via optical mask-less lithography (OML). Leica and MAPPER champion mask-less multiple e-beam concepts. The semiconductor companies Infineon Technologies, Philips Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics represent the users’ side.
Mart Graef, chair of the EAB-ML2 said: “The expertise and skills that are needed to create maskless lithography tools are available in Europe. The involvement of the major European semiconductor manufacturers and semiconductor equipment companies will ensure that the solutions provided will be tuned to the requirements of the IC industry. This is the most important issue that we will address in the EAB-ML2”.
Peter Tischer, Vice Chairman of MEDEA+ added: “ Lithography is a large part of the MEDEA+ Programme. We estimate maskless lithography as a promising solution for low-volume IC products, maybe also for prototyping of new designs. Having different proposals for ML2 in Europe, the EAB-ML2 offers the chance to identify joint technical challenges and address them in collaborative work within the MEDEA+ Programme.”