Smart devices are one of Minatec's strategic development priorities. The centre will be devoting substantial research resources to them, and a specific building. In October two events underlined Grenoble-Is‘re's potential for designing futuristic products and services to revolutionize our daily life, much as portable phones have already done. First several key players set up a new research laboratory, along the same lines as leading international laboratories. Secondly, the first seminar in France to address smart devices, offered a foretaste of an international conference to be held at the end of next year. Temporary premises of Ideas Lab.

Ideas Lab, an idea generator to direct industrial R&D.
At Ideas Lab - Interactive Devices for Emerging Applications and Services - you can be sure of a high-tech garage atmosphere! When Ideas Lab set up shop on the future Minatec site, it opted for somewhat off-beat, albeit temporary premises, quite in keeping with its creative ambitions. Its vocation is to think up innovative smart devices and test them on consumers, with a usage-oriented approach.

Research carried out at the laboratory will serve as the basis for new projects and steer R&D work by local firms. It will bring together partners from very different horizons - industry, research, trade, education and the arts. Major international firms, already operating in Grenoble, will rub shoulders with scientists from university research labs, engineering school graduates and academics.
This pluridisciplinary organization, the first of its kind in Europe, will pool input from designers and artists, experts from the humanities, in particular sociologists and anthropologists, specialists in fields such as software, microelectronics and microsystems, not to mention telecommunications operators, industry and the future users of smart devices. In many cases the right combination of product and service has yet to be found for tomorrow's applications. Research will focus, for instance, on how best to combine new devices - peripherals, portable computers, phones and battery-powered sensors - with innovative services, such as electronic trading, automated navigation, communicating clothing, 3D graphics, virtual clones or measurement of physiological parameters.
One thing is certain though. There is a good chance that quite a few of tomorrow's smart devices will first see the light of day at Ideas Lab.
Contact : michel.ida@cea.fr

Smart devices, from theory to practice.

At the first symposium organized on this topic in France, discussions naturally focused on new concepts and technologies, and the many novel uses they will prompt.
The symposium was held at the France Telecom R&D centre in Meylan, bringing together about a hundred experts, technologists, electronics engineers, sociologists and psychologists from research and industry.
The aim of the gathering was to gain a better grasp of the overall concept, predict the technology shifts involved and think up new ways of using the resulting devices. The event was organized by SEE and RNRT. It gave key players already located in the Grenoble area - HP Lab, CEA-Leti, STMicroelectronics, Bull, INRIA and Grenoble University - the opportunity to state their case for making Grenoble an internationally recognized centre for expertise in this field.
France Telecom's R&D centre has, for instance, already played an important part in developing smart devices and novel uses. It is determined to go on making a major contribution to this process.

Contact :
Patrice.Senn@rd.francetelecom.fr

Web site and symposium summary

SOC 2001 organizers :
J-L Lardy (France telecom)
P. Senn (France telecom)
Michel BON (SEE)

urban area council (Métro) decided to make a decisive contribution to developing Minatec. A month earlier, in June, the Rhône-Alpes regional council had confirmed its participation in the project. In all, local government voted to inject more than e65m (including funds covered by the regional development plan, or Contrat de Plan Etat-Région). The funds will be used to build the Maison des Micro-Nanotechnologies and premises for training and research. In all, e150m will be invested in the centre over the next four years. When complete, it will accommodate more than 3,500 people. Local and regional government are currently settling the administrative details of their contribution. In the meantime, the Isère department council (Conseil Général), will be responsible for overall management of the project.
Contact : Jean-François Veyrat, jf.veyrat@cea.fr

Firm backing for Minatec: (left to right)
Michel Destot, Mayor of Grenoble,
Anne-Marie Comparini, President of Rhône-Alpes Regional Council,
André Vallini, President of Isère Department Council,
Didier Migaud, President of Métro, the Grenoble Urban Area Council.

The Institute of Microelectronics, Electromagnetism and Photonics (IMEP) is the first university research laboratory to move to Minatec. Imep is a joint undertaking - backed by CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier and INPG-Elesa - that came into existence when two laboratories, LEMO and LPCS, merged. The move to Minatec is hardly surprising as Imep is involved in all the fields of interest to micro and nanotechnology. The laboratory will cover a lot of ground, in scientific terms, creating interfaces between complementary disciplines that combine physics, chemistry, biology and universe sciences with information and communications science and technology. Imep has solid credentials in microelectronics, microphotonics, microsystems and nanostructures. Its research potential is of immediate interest to firms in computing, semiconductors and telecommunications, representing a decisive asset for the next 20 years. In particular, Imep teams are specializing in advanced microelectronic devices, integrated optics on glass, and integration of radiofrequency and microwave functions on silicon. The laboratory has just designed a transistor that takes silicon integration one step further, down to decananometric scale. There is clearly much to be gained from synergy between Imep and Minatec. Of all the laboratories in France, Imep is the most heavily involved in the projects of the Advanced Microelectronics Projects Centre (CPMA), which uses CEA-Leti's Plato technology platform. Imep has also been working with Leti for a long time and will be playing an important part in the industrial development work at Minatec's coming Advanced Technology Building (BHT). Two Grenoble startups, which have established enviable international reputations, already enjoy close links with Imep. Imep stands at the meeting point of numerous scientific and technological disciplines, in a pivotal position at Minatec. It will work hard to go on building bridges and bring its ambitious projects to fruition, rising to the challenges of tomorrow's micro and nanoelectronics and micro and nanotechnology.
Contact : balestra@enserg.fr

The first temporary building, covering 2,500 sq m and occupying the same plot as one of the centre's future structures, has been operational since April 2001. It is home to three startups -Alditech, Tronic's Systems and Apibio. A second, 500 sq m building was delivered in June and now accommodates the silicon technology research teams. A third, 1,600 sq m unit houses the teams researching information and healthcare systems.

US firm Mykrolis moves European headquarters to Centr'Alp
Millipore is an international firm specializing in separation and purification technology for the microelectronics, pharmaceutical and food industry. It has just moved the European head office of its subsidiary, Mykrolis, to the Centr'Alp technology park in Moirans, a few miles out of Grenoble. Mykrolis employs a thousand people worldwide and turns over $335m producing equipment for filtering gas and chemicals, purification, pressure and flow control. The equipment is mainly used in semiconductor fabrication.
Mykrolis had numerous contacts with CEA-Leti before deciding on the move to Grenoble-Isère, which was assisted by the local enterprise board, AEPI.
The firm was attracted by the importance of the local microelectronics industry and Minatec's potential.
To begin with, Mykrolis will be basing 70 people at the Centr'Alp site, evenly divided between support activities and technical functions. A class 100 clean room has been built.

Opposite: the Intelligen2, one of Mykrolis' top products..

Horiba , from Japan, settles in Grenoble
Horiba is a Japanese firm specializing in sensors for scientific instrumentation and, more recently, for semiconductors. It employs 5,000 people worldwide and turns over $850m. It has just started a subsidiary, at Gières in the outskirts of Grenoble, which will be responsible for France and southern Europe. Horiba is particularly interested in microelectromechanical systems (Mems). The presence in Grenoble-Isère of several leading players in this field, notably PHSmems, Memscap, Alditech, and Tronics, weighed heavily in favour of the Grenoble site. Horiba also supplies Soitec and STMicroelectronics.

Key figures for micro and nanotechnology in Grenoble-Isère :

Constant development for the last 40 years. e3.8bn invested in the last 10 years.
More than 200 establishments (industry, research and training).
13,350 jobs:
- 10,350 jobs in industry,
- 3,000 in basic and applied research.
Companies:
- 30 multinationals,
- 20 high potential startups founded in the last five years.
Innovation:
- 300 international patents per year,
- Major technology transfers for industry,
- Internationally recognized scientific achievements.

(source AEPI : www.grenoble-isere.com)

Journées Systèmes & Logiciels Critiques 2001
JSLC 2001 will focus on three main topics: system security, the outlook for system development and embedded systems.
Contact : andre.martin@imag.fr
http://www.systemes-critiques.org

Centre des Technologies du Logiciel
A morning devoted to introducing the work of CTL, with Gérard Roucairol, President of the RNTL steering committee.
Contact : jmcolle@imag.fr