The Partners of the NEMSIC Project

EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne) is one of the two federal engineering schools in Switzerland. It delivers Engineer and PhD degrees in 12 engineering fields. The School has a staff of about 2'400 people including professors, scientists and administrative personnel and an annual budget of around 500MCHF. Engineering students are more than 6'000, while PhD students count for more than 900. The Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems (IMM), founded in January 2002, is a research structure reporting to the Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Techniques (STI) with multidisciplinary research profile covering various fields in microelectronics and Microsystems: ICs and systems, solid state devices, materials for microelectronics and microsystems, novel processes and technologies, MEMS and NEMS, sensors and actuators, CAD and multi-disciplinary applications such as biomedical or space/airborne.

Delft University of Technology is one of the three technical universities in the Netherlands and it is renowned for its high standard of education and research in various fields as physics, electrical engineering, computer science, architecture, etc. TUD offers undergraduate programs at bachelor and master level, and graduate programs at PhD level. It collaborates with other educational establishments and research institutes both in the Netherlands and abroad and also enjoys partnerships with governments, branch organizations, numerous consultancies, the industry, and companies from the small and medium business sectors. TUD contributes in NEMSIC with the Computer Engineering Laboratory which is part of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer. The Computer Engineering (CE) Laboratory performs research and teaches the engineering discipline of determination, development, and integration of both software and hardware to build a computing system. The laboratory focuses on the definition of system requirements, from embedded to general purpose, their architecture and implementations, and the study and development of tools and software that allow the analysis and synthesis of computing systems. The laboratory formation includes 8 faculty members, 3 staff members, 53 PhD students, and numerous master students. Most of the funded research comes from the STW (Dutch national science foundation), EU, and the industry (Philips, IBM, Intel, Nokia, etc). In the past ten years, members of the group published more than 400 conference papers, 90 journal publications, and were awarded more than 70 USA and EU patents. Additionally, 12 start-ups companies have been founded by ex- students and computer engineering faculty members.

Stichting IMEC-NL is an independent research center and, together with TNO, one of the two pillars of the Holst Centre. Its research focuses on next generation wireless autonomous transducer solutions. IMEC-NL’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development in industry. IMEC-NL has as objectives to be an "international center of excellence", to reinforce the local industry, and to collaborate intensively with local universities. IMEC-NL will further build on current research of IMEC-vzw in Belgium, in the fields of ultra-low-power radio; ultra-low-power digital signal processing; micro-power generation, storage and management, and sensor and actuator technology. IMEC Nederland will integrate these building blocks to realize solutions for the future deployment of autonomous wireless transducer networks.

The School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton is known for the 1st electronics department in the UK and ranked at the top of the UK’s Electronic and Electrical Engineering Departments. Current research activities encompass Si-based nanoelectronics, MEMS/NEMS, nanophotonics, bioelectronics & Lab-on-a-chip, RF systems, quantum information processing and biomimetics. A new State-of-the-Art clean room is under construction and planned to go on-line mid-2008, which features 600m2 novel electronic devices clean room integrated with 110m2 bioMEMS clean room & 110m2 thick film MEMS clean room and enables to explore novel nanoelectronic materials and devices.

CEA-Léti, the Laboratory for Electronics & Information Technology is operated by Direction de la Recherche Technologique at CEA, the French Atomic Energy Commission. It mainly aims at helping companies to increase their competitiveness through technological innovation and transfer of its technical know-how to industry. Major player in the MINATEC Micro-Nano technologies innovation center, CEA-Léti benefits from 10000 m2 state-of-the-art clean rooms, with equipment worth some 160 million euros. It is currently employing some 1400 people among whom 1000 CEA employees and co-workers of various status including 100 people from industrial partners, working in the CEA-Léti premises within the framework of bilateral collaborations. The Department for Heterogeneous Integration on Silicon (DIHS), 159 Léti people, which covers the whole MEMS/NEMS technologies at Léti (in terms of SOI substrates, MEMS design, manufacturing, integration and packaging, and characterization / reliability), has a wide portfolio in the MEMS fields where it has many decades of experience. It utilizes on a daily basis the technical facilities of the Front-end (CMOS and NEMS) 200mm line and the back-end (MEMS) 200mm line, located in MINATEC premises and operated by another Léti Department. CEA-Léti also includes a Department for Design and System integration (DCIS).

SCIPROM is an SME specialised in the management of European research projects. SCIPROM supports scientific coordinators from the first project idea to the final report, in project set-up, submission, negotiation, and management. At present, SCIPROM has 8 employees.

IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. Main research areas include CMOS-based nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and post-CMOS electronics, bioelectronics and design technologies. IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development in industry with its unique balance of processing system know-how, IP portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure and strong network of companies, universities and research institutes. The infrastructure relevant for this project includes: a cleanroom, a bio-electronics (including cell & tissue culture
facilities), biochemical and characterization laboratories. The bioelectronic systems group in which this project will be carried out consists of a multidisciplinary team of engineers, (bio)chemists and physicists. Several researchers belonging to this research team would be involved in the activities involved in this project.

Sensors Laboratory Bucharest (SLB) was established in 2003, included in the Honeywell Romania srl (ltd.). SLB is a functional part of the Honeywell’s global Sensors & Wireless Laboratory, within the Automation Control Solutions Division (Minneapolis, MN, USA). SLB has a total of 20 R&D engineers/scientists working in the field of micro- and nanosensors (including MEMS).

Industrial Research, in the field of neuroscience