On 12 April 2002 Motorola Semiconductor (now trading as Freescale) joined Philips and STMicroelectronics at Crolles to set up a joint R&D centre to develop (90-32 nm) CMOS technologies on 300mm silicon wafers. Their objective is to attain global leadership for this type of circuit.  

Context: three big players for a nano-chip

A radical technology leap for chips, down to nanometric scale. The Crolles II Alliance is decisive in two respects in the history of semiconductor technology development. It is the largest in terms the industrial investment involved, but also the most innovative, with respect to the ingenious industrial model on which it is based.
 

Programme

The aim of this partnership is to attain global leadership in nanometric technologies on 300mm wafers. By pooling resources the Alliance gives the three partners an enormous advantage in terms of costs, shorter design cycles and standardized platforms. The joint development programme is based at Crolles, near Grenoble, at the new Crolles II R&D centre. Furthermore the support of CEA-Leti, a world-class basic research laboratory, will increase the research capability of the laboratories in Grenoble.
The joint R&D programmes are focussing on development processes on CMOS for technologies from 90nm down to 32nm, including SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technologies and embedded memory (eMRAM, eDRAM, eSRAM). In addition the Alliance covers a formal technology alignment with TSMC for commodity CMOS platforms.
 

Investments

The combined resources of the three firms ($3.4bn in 2002-7) will be devoted to the development of future generations of the CMOS technology, the aim being to integrate more logic in an increasingly small amount of space. This led to the start in Crolles of a new joint R&D centre. Investment in R&D amounts to $1.2bn. The firms have committed themselves to creating 1,200 direct jobs.

This agreement, which is supported by the local authorities (including the Isère Departmental Council) also vindicates the launch of the Minatec programme, which aims to create a micro and nanotechnology centre of excellence in Grenoble, bringing together under one roof research, teaching and industry.

Results

A highly positive return on investment, exceeding initial forecasts by March 2006, with 118% of R&D expenditure having been completed and 1,340 jobs created (source La Tribune, 01/03/06).

 Your AEPI contact: Nicolas BEROUD