EC Approves €200 Million NanoSmart

Project targets advanced materials for improved performance and electrical consumption.

The Soitec Group, CEA-LETI and the French Agency for Industrial Innovation (AII) have teamed up on a new, €200 million materials research program dubbed the “NanoSmart” project. Nelly Kernevez, a well-known Léti researcher who recently joined Soitec, will head up the project. The European Commission has now authorized the AII to help fund the program.

“Users need substrate solutions for higher performance, increased customization, and new applications,” explains Pascal Mauberger, COO of Soitec. “The NanoSmart project will expand the Smart Cut “toolbox” into further silicon-related advances, as well as into other materials, particularly in the III-V arena.”

NanoSmart targets include advanced materials for improved performance and electrical consumption in image processors, high – frequency telecommunications components, power components for the automotive industry and home audiovisual equipment and LEDs for lighting.

Work will focus on engineering of:

• the top layer of a substrate stack for enhanced carrier mobility of CMOS based devices,
• the buried dielectric layer targeting CMOS and power device functionality,
• the overall substrate structure,
• and new materials such as gallium nitride(GaN).