Minatec at the fulcrum of nanoscience and technology

Grenoble nanotechnology founded on an international centre of nanoscience

Institut National Polytechnique Greno-ble (INP Grenoble) is committed to developing nano-science and technology with its partners in the Minatec centre. True to its pioneering spirit our group of engineer-ing schools, after initiating local and national development of hydroelectric power, then microelectronics and computing, is now in the vang-uard of the nanotechnology revolution.
The Minatec centre, in which INP Grenoble and CEA are involved, will be a driving force in this revolution. Minatec will take advantage of the considerable resources of local research – including several national centres (CNRS, CEA, National Institute of Applied Computer Research - Inria), two European centres (Institut Laue Langevin and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) and its universities (Université Joseph Fourier, INP Grenoble) – to foster links between nanoscience and technology.
Nanoscience is the study of the properties of matter at a scale of several tens or hundreds of atoms (nanometric scale). One of the main reasons for work-ing at this scale is the drive to reduce the size of components and the corresponding miniaturization in microelectronics. Until now miniaturization has largely been achieved by using increasingly sophisticated etching techniques, in a top-down approach. Another line of research is exploring radically new solutions, starting from the lower limit, in other words the atom, to design and produce new materials with enhanced physical, chemical or biological properties. This bottom-up approach is fundamental to nano-science and technology. It involves inventing new manufacturing tools and methods and developing specific instrumentation. All disciplines – physics, chemistry, engin-eering, biology, software, optics, etc. – and all research organizations are concerned.
Much of the work of research laboratories worldwide now focuses on nano-science and technology be-cause it is a strategic sector, promising fast growth with huge potential for economic development. This is reflected in the scale of the programmes and the financial support the sector enjoys.
To deploy such programmes effectively federations and technology centres need to be set up, pooling the resources of laboratories and research facilities.
INP Grenoble is heavily involved in this dynamic through its research teams and local and regional collaborative projects. Its involvement in Rhône-Alpes Region recently resulted in the setting up of the Micro and Nanotechnology Federation (FMNT) in partnership with CNRS and local universities. FMNT will use technology platforms in the Grenoble area, notably the ones operated by the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Cime) and Nanofab. It will play an essential role org-anizing research at Minatec.
One of the strong points of the Minatec project is that it brings together, at the same location, the full gamut of skills contributing to the industrial development of advanced nanotechnologies and their applications. The proximity of such skills, combined with the strong ties between the university, research and industry, is one of Minatec's prime assets.
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Paul Jacquet - President of Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble

Left: picture of a silicon dot 5nm in diameter, surrounded by a silica film, developed to produce a new type of memory (picture by CEA-DRFMC). Right: stack of GaN quantum wells on a GaAlN matrix. These structures were developed to produce ultraviolet lasers (picture by CEA-DRFMC).

With Minatec the Grenoble area is set to become one of the world's leading micro and nanotechnology centres. But this has not happened by chance. Long ago Grenoble started doing the nanoscience groundwork that now enables it to move from basic research to applications.
The battle of the infinitely small is one of the most important economic challenges facing us as the third millennium opens. Victory in this strategic battle will go to those who have developed the upstream knowledge and tools to master the world at atomic scale. Nanoscience encompasses all the aspects of studying the properties of matter at atomic scale. It should lead, for instance, to the design of new mater-ials or the production of submicronic components (built using less than 1,000 atoms!). It holds an enormous potential for new applications in fields as diverse as electronics, robotics, healthcare, telecommunications, optics and mechanics.
Grenoble is one of the few places in the world to have had, for the last 20 years, well established skills, in a comprehensive range of fields, for re-
search into the properties of very small objects. Today researchers have the resources to "work at molecular level, atom by atom, to build large structures with a fundamentally new molecular structure [...] and much enhanced properties," says Michel Lannoo, deputy scientific director of the Physical Science and Mathematics Department of CNRS.
More than 1,000 Grenoble researchers are working in nanoscience. Their research concerns materials, components, microsystems and technologies. With the basic research teams at CEA, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier and INPG, Grenoble can draw on a pluridisciplinary research line-up that is unique in Europe. The range of disciplines is probably one of the key factors that will give the area a decisive advantage in the exploration of the infinitely small.
Grenoble's research line-up is backed by major European facilities, which are exceptionally well represented: Institut Laue Langevin (ILL, neutron source), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory (GHMFL) enabling atoms to watched very closely and experiments to be performed essential to progress in nanoscience.
Furthermore the scientific community in Grenoble has opted to share specific tools of increasing sophistication (in microscopy, for example). The Advanced Microelectronics Projects Centre (CPMA) enables it to access CEA-Leti resources such as the Plato technology platform, Nanofab (see box), the Very Low Temperature Research Centre (CRTBT) and the CEA Department of Basic Research into Condensed Matter (DRFMC).
In addition to public research centres, the Grenoble area has the advantage of a powerful industry, with a strong R&D focus, with high-profile firms such as Motorola, STMicroelectronics, Philips, Infineon, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, OnSemiconduc-tors, Thales, etc. This makes for an extremely fertile environment which facilitates and speeds up the switch from research to application and subsequent market roll-out.
The existence of a critical mass in nanoscience made it easier to launch Minatec which aims to become Europe's leading centre of micro and nanotechnology innovation and expertise. To take cross fertilization further and speed up the process the research comm-unity in Grenoble decided to give additional structure to this critical mass, fostering synergy and optimizing human, material and financial resources.
Eight Grenoble laboratories (affiliated to CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier and INP Grenoble), in conjunction with CEA/DRFMC laboratories, submitted a nanophysics project as part of France's sixth state-sponsored regional development master plan (CPER). The labs represent some 150 researchers and faculty members, and a further 40 PhD students all involved in nanophysics. They will be working within the framework of the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics (IPMC, affiliated to CNRS, UJF, CEA and INPG) which specializes in new lines of research in physics. The first three years of the regional master plan (2000-2002) saw a substantial increase in funding. This brought additional resources for producing new or more powerful nano-objects, tools for manipulating them and characterizing their physical properties.
The Rhône-Alpes Micro and Nanotechnology Federation (FMNT) was set up in november 2002, bringing together six laboratories – four in Grenoble and two in Lyon – and more than 330 researchers, working mainly on micro and nanotechnology (see page 3). FMNT, with its high-powered resources, will play a decisive role in the future of Minatec, giving the scientific community considerable scope for research.
The culmination of the present regional master plan in 2006 and the Minatec dynamic should encourage progress and enable the area to maintain its strong position in nanoscience. In pursuit of the same aim a project is taking shape to set up a European school of nanoscience in Grenoble. As a foretaste a "pre-doctoral" nanoscience summer school will be held in Les Houches, near Chamonix, in September 2003. There are also plans for an Institute of Nanoscience to coordinate and develop research in several disciplines in the Grenoble area.
Many laboratories, some of which belong to the previously mentioned fed-erations, are involved in this project which has already received CNRS backing (with the start of the FR2601 federation in January 2003).
With all these initiatives and projects Grenoble is well placed to become a key European centre for nanoscience

Nanofab looking for quantum bits
The Nanofab platform was officially opened on 10 December 2001, in the premises of CRBT. It special-izes in nanofabrication of objects larger than 50nm by electronic and ionic lithography, deposition and etching. It will the keystone of a large number of scientific projects scheduled as part of the nanophysics regional master plan: nano-optics, nanoelectronics, nanomagnetism and nano-instrumentation. The addition of a 80 sq m clean room will enable physicists to supervise samples from fabrication to highly demanding physical character-
ization. Nanofab's research projects include the realization of quantum bits. These systems form the basis of Josephson junctions, combining superconductivity and the Coulomb blockade effect. Mastering their fabrication would substantially improve the calculation power of computers.
Nanofab, with its flexible operations, is a valuable, more accessible complement to the Plato platform. Plato itself will be able to concentrate on more specific or resource-intensive programmes.

"Nanoscience existed in Grenoble and several other major scientific centres worldwide long before the term, now very much in vogue, was invented," maintains Jean-Louis Pautrat *
Pautrat, aged 61, is a semiconductor specialist at Leti. He reckons Nobel prizewinner Louis Néel's work on magnetism and the decision to build a CEA research centre in Grenoble marked the start of nanoscience in the area. "You must bear in mind that at the beginning of the 1960s cooperation between the solid physics section and the electronics department at CEA Grenoble paved the way for the first integrated circuits," he explains. Pautrat remembers how in 1962, as a young PhD student, he was already working on the very first field-effect transistors. At the time Enserg, an engineering school set up by INPG to specialize in electronics was already five years old and fast expanding. In research many laboratories (physical spectrometry, electrostatics, metal physics, magnetism) were already working on nanoscience, albeit unknowingly! At the end of the 1960s this fertile subsoil led to the setting up of Grenoble's first major scientific facility, Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), soon to be joined by the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory (GHMFL) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). As a result, among other things, a joint CNRS-CEA team was formed in 1986 to develop the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures. At the same time the Grenoble area came to known as France's answer to Silicon Valley, thanks to an exceptionally creative, prosperous electronics and information technology industry. As Pautrat points out: "Grenoble is the only place in France to offer public and university research, engineering schools and a powerful industry, all geared to international cooperation."
He believes there is a dynamic perceptible at all levels, particularly in research, fuelled by the complexity of developing new technologies and the many challenges involved. It is consequently essential to crossbreed skills and disciplines. Indeed it is already one of Grenoble's key strongpoints and central to Minatec. It should enable it to surpass its international competitors in nanotechnology.
* Pautrat is a physics investigator at CEA-Grenoble's Department of Basic Research into Condensed Matter (DRFMC). He has just published Demain le nanomonde, voyage au cœur du minuscule, Fayard, Paris.

The Micro and Nanotechnology Federation (FMNT), launched as a response to scientific and strategic challenges, will play a pivotal role in micro and nanotechnology research in Rhône-Alpes Region. Gérard Ghibaudo, FMNT's director (opposite), explains its vocation and the prospects for the future.

What is FMNT's mission?
FMNT was set up in 2002 at the instigation of CNRS, bringing together six highly complementary Rhône- Alpes laboratories (see below). The federation is responsible for coordinating and managing the laboratories' micro and nanotechnology research work so as to develop synergy. It will thus be possible to rationalize and pool our efforts. Furthermore, thanks to substantial funds, FMNT can draw on technological resources supplementing the laboratories' existing facilities. The work underway will ultimately become more consistent. But the FMNT has no intention of taking the place of its member laboratories. Its aim is rather to coordinate work in four key areas: materials, technologies, components and microsystems. More than 300 researchers and post-graduates from the six laboratories are already involved in FMNT research projects, an indication of its strategic role in the development of micro and nanotechnology.

Until now the large resources available to these laboratories belonged to PLATO, the CEA-Leti platform...
That's right. Priority access via the Advanced Microelectronics Projects Centre (CPMA) enables the laboratories to use state of the art tools that form the basis for coordinated research on a number of technolog- ical options and for research conducted at CEA-Leti. In view of the ambitions of the programme with which we are involved, management of the Plato platform has to be very well organized. Alongside these facilities, we shall be setting up equipment for university research teams, with more flexible access and greater scope for updating the technologies being implemented. The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Cime), which is responsible for training operators, technicians and engineers in micro and nanotechnology, will also be located in Minatec's Advanced Components Building. It will provide FMNT with access to a 900 sq m clean room, of which 200 sq m is dedicated to research and managed directly by FMNT.

Tunable filters for optical telecommunications networks (photograph by LEOM-FMNT)

What are the advantages for researchers?
As part of FMNT these tools will give their users greater freedom and flexibility, complementing Plato. The FMNT wants to act as an interface between the academic world and technology research undertaken at CEA-Léti.

Will FMNT foster horizontal working practices?
Of course! First because the five main research topics approved by FMNT are "federative" in themselves. They focus on micro- and nano-electronics, microsystems, photonics, spintronics, ultimate technologies and innovative characterization techniques. Second we have researchers on the staff of the laboratories whose work is part of a joint project, as well as PhD students supervised by several laboratories.

Can you provide a few examples of research backed by FMNT?
There are several I can mention: silicon carbide technology, MEMS, random-access magnetic memory, nanomaterials and nanostructures, new ultimate CMOS architectures, high permittivity insulating materials, DNA chips, photon circuits... Microsystèmes (MEMS et MOEMS)

Jacques Chirac opens Crolles 2
Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, officially opened the Crolles 2 facility on 27 February in the presence of the presidents of the three companies involved in the alliance: Gerard Kleisterlee (Philips), Pasquale Pistorio (STMicroelectronics) and Christopher Galvin (Motorola).


Agreement between DGA and CEA
France's Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have just signed a declaration of intent covering active cooperation in electronic components. More particularly DGA is keen to participate in the Minatec innovation centre being set up around Leti. This partnership should help to cater for DGA's technology intelligence needs with access to the most advanced civilian technologies in microelectronics and microsystems. The agreement will also enable DGA to acquire specific technologies and give defence firms access to them.

Novellus moves in opposite ST Microelectronics
US equipment manufacturer Novellus Systems Inc. ($1.3bn turnover worldwide) is moving its European headquarters from the UK to Bernin, just opposite the ST Microelectronics facility, a key customer.
Novellus employs some 30 people at its Isère site and 120 in Europe. It specializes in advanced deposition (CVD, PVD), surface preparation and chemical mechanical planarization equipment for high-volume production of semiconductors at the lowest possible cost.

Updates:

Mondia Quartz, a European supplier of quartz for the semiconductor industry, has just opened a new 1,500 sq m production site comprising two class 10 clean rooms that comply with the most stringent ultracleanliness requirements. Mondia Quartz was incorporated in 1996 (e1.5m turnover in 2002). In partnership with Leti it is involved in the Medea European programme. With one production facility in Germany it is now opening a second one in the Czech Republic.

ATS Automation France builds assembly systems. Its parent company, ATS, also owns Photowatt, Europe's leading manufacturer of photovoltaic cells. The two companies are located at Bourgoin-Jallieu, between Grenoble and Lyon.ATS Automation has just invested €4.5m in a new 8,500 sq m production facility. With a workforce of 430 at its two Isère facilities, ATS has invested €60.5m over the last two years.

Tokyo Electron (TEL), which specializes in selling and maintaining IC production equipment, is doubling the size of its premises in Meylan to deliver a faster response to the demands of its semiconductormanufacturing
customers in the Grenoble area. The firm has just opened a centre dedicated to developing new applications for testing chips on 200 and 300mm wafers.

Bernard Barbier, aged 50, was until recently Director of Information Technology at CEA. He has been appointed Director of Leti (the CEA Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory). Barbier is a specialist in thermonuclear plasma, but also has considerable expertise in industrial systems, notably biochips, medical imaging and transmissions.

MINATEC 2003
• The third Minatec international micro and nanotechnology forum, for research and industry, will be held in Grenoble from 22 to 26 September 2003.
http://www.minatec.com/minatec2003/

• This year's Innovative Mass Storage Technologies (ISMT) workshop will be held at the same time as the Minatec 2003 forum.
http://www.minatec.com/imst2003

JNOG
The National Guided Optics Forum will be held in Valence on 12, 13 and 14 November 2003. It will bring together everyone in France working in this field and its applications. A dozen or so exhibitors will be taking part in the event.
http://193.253.199.20

16th edition of “Entretiens Jacques Cartier”
This edition, in Grenoble, on 2 and 3 December, will be presenting Minatec and the world's top cooperative micro and nanotechnology projects.
www.minatec.com/agenda/jacques-cartier.htm