CORDIS Archive
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R&D activities in TCS are structured around the following technical themes:
The objective is to provide electronic system manufacturers with innovative microelectronics components and subsystems for their future products. Adaptation of existing technologies to provide new features or increased functionality (portability, endurance, performance, etc.) is the primary approach to broadening microelectronics applications.
By the end of the century, ICs will employ upwards of 50 million transistors, 5 to 6 layers of metal wiring and clock rates of over 1 GHz. Coupled with the move towards 300 mm wafers and critical dimensions of 0.18 microns, this poses challenges to all aspects of IC technology and manufacturing. At a process level, development of equipment and advanced process modules are among the activities addressed. At a system/subsystem level, packaging issues such as fine line multilayer PCBs, semiconductor area array packages and MCMs are covered. In MCMs, the focus is on cost and availability rather than on performance.
A microsystem is defined as a miniaturized system that combines sensing and/or actuating with processing functions. These would normally include two or more of the following: electrical, mechanical, optical, chemical, biological, magnetic or other properties, integrated onto a single chip or a multichip hybrid. Activities in microsystems aim to stimulate the establishment of an industrial microsystems supply, to expand the application potential of microsystems components and to foster the uptake of microengineering technologies in larger systems. Application areas include the automotive, medical, environmental, industrial and consumer sectors.
Peripherals technologies cover components and subsystems for displays and mass-storage systems as well as for home automation and energy management. In display technologies, the approach is to focus on flat slim displays.
Ongoing best practice activities are in electronic systems design (ESD) and aim at promoting use of state-of-the-art commercial design tools and validation of prototype tools, and stimulating broad re-use of building blocks and macrocells. An ESD Best Practice information package is available.
Cooperative research in ESD aims at the provision of tools, methodologies and services (with emphasis on system level and mixed signal design) to industrial user companies. It has a separate ESD Cooperative Research information package.
The emergence of high volume applications, in particular communications systems, that can support the development of dedicated ICs poses challenges for designers in terms of achieving increased power savings and increased integration. Added to this, efficient design methodologies are required to ensure product development within increasingly shorter time-to-market constraints. The Design Clusters activity addresses both low power design and mixed-signal design, and focuses on methodology. Design experiments (which constitute either the low power cluster or the mixed-signal cluster) aim at developing or improving design and test methodologies for application in products. For more information, see the Design Clusters information package.
The semiconductor industry is facing an ever-growing demand for components with decreasing critical device dimensions and an increasing wafer size. Up to 80% of the costs of a leading-edge wafer fab are due to manufacturing equipment alone. The Semiconductor Equipment Assessment (SEA) initiative is supporting European equipment suppliers by facilitating close links between them and global IC manufacturers. The activities include assessment of front-end, back-end, metrology, and FPD equipment.
A new action, called SEA300, has been launched to support 300 mm equipment Demonstration Tests at European suppliers' sites by providing 300 mm wafers (blank and preprocessed) and metrology services.
A SEA information package is available. Further information may be obtained at the SEA home page.
Basic Services (EUROPRACTICE) offers a cost-effective and flexible means of accessing ASICs, MCMs and Microsystems technologies through the provision of consultancy, training, software tools, design support, low-volume production runs and access to "normally" internal volume production facilities. The costs of developing ASICs and MCMs for dedicated applications with low-volume production are often prohibitively high, especially for SMEs. Multi Project Wafer (MPW) runs and dedicated low-volume MCM services offer a cost-effective route to ASIC and MCM design and fabrication.
The cost, complexity and expertise required to develop Microsystems components or Microsystem-based products often present a barrier to the introduction of this technology. Services providing solutions and knowledge in a globally integrated manner - a path from feasibility studies and prototyping through to high volume production - are offered. Design, Microsystems process technology, as well as packaging and integration of the Microsystems component in the final product or system are all covered.
A EUROPRACTICE information package is available. Further information may be obtained at the EUROPRACTICE home page.
The aim of the first users action (FUSE) is to stimulate more industrial enterprises to incorporate microelectronics technologies into their production, thereby increasing their competitiveness. A vital principle of FUSE is that the participating enterprise acquires the necessary knowledge and experience (via collaboration with subcontractors) to access and use microelectronics technologies themselves.
The main instrument for achieving the goal of FUSE is a funded Application Experiment (AE). In these experiments, the enterprise will carry out the design, manufacture and test of a component which is relevant to the improvement of their manufactured products. The secondary instruments are the Technology Transfer Nodes (TTNs). These nodes are established in regions throughout Europe to provide a local interface to participating enterprises.
In addition to the benefits gained by the funded enterprise, FUSE aims to capture and disseminate the essentials of AEs to encourage other enterprises to adopt microelectronics technologies. It is the task of the TTNs to extract the essentials of the AEs which they monitor, and use these to promote the benefits of microelectronics technologies.
A FUSE information package is available.
Networks and working groups have been set up to promote the use of advanced design technologies both in large enterprises and SMEs. In packaging and microsystems technologies, networks provide an infrastructure to facilitate the industrial cooperation needed to firmly establish design and manufacturing in these areas.
The URL for this page is /esprit/src/tcsact.htm
It was last updated on 13 March 1998, and is maintained by Colette Maloney - Colette.Maloney@dg3.cec.be