Imec and its project partners announced the launch of the European FP7 (Framework Program) project PASTA (Integrating Platform for Advanced Smart textile Applications) aiming at developing large-area smart textiles. Large-area manufacturability is an essential aspect in bridging the gap between lab prototyping and the industrial manufacturing of smart textiles for sports and leisure wear, technical textiles for safety and monitoring applications,...

Imec Taiwan today signed the co-funding contract with the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for its R&D activity Imec Taiwan Innovation Centre (ITIC). ITIC’s goal is to expedite applied research projects with industry and academia that will result in electronic designs, components and technology solutions. The new R&D centre will focus on a variety of innovative applications in bioelectronics, MEMS and “green” electronics that a...

Imec and Holst Centre, together with TASS software professionals have developed a mobile heart monitoring system that allows to view your electrocardiogram on an Android mobile phone. The innovation is a low-power interface that transmits signals from a wireless ECG (electrocardiogram or heart monitoring)-sensor system to an android mobile phone. With this interface, imec, Holst Centre and TASS are the first to demonstrate a complete Body Area Ne...

Imec and Holst Centre, together with TASS software professionals have developed a mobile heart monitoring system that allows to view your electrocardiogram on an Android mobile phone. The innovation is a low-power interface that transmits signals from a wireless ECG (electrocardiogram or heart monitoring)-sensor system to an android mobile phone. With this interface, imec, Holst Centre and TASS are the first to demonstrate a complete Body Area Ne...

Ghent University (UGent) and imec today announced the creation of Caliopa, a spin-off from their world leading Photonics Research Group. An initial 2 million Euro in funding was raised from Baekeland, Fidimec, PMV-Vinnof, a private investor and the founders. Caliopa will develop and market advanced silicon photonics based optical transceivers for the data and telecommunications markets.

REALITY, a European funded initiative on Design for Variability, has just finished its project mission. In about its 2.5 years lifespan REALITY has focused on developing industrially relevant innovative design techniques, methods, and flows for the design and analysis of energy-efficient self-adaptive System-on-Chips (SoCs). The tackled challenges include benchmarking the impact of the latest 32nm CMOS process manufacturing variability at all abs...

At the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (Valencia, Spain), imec presents several large-area silicon solar cells with a conversion efficiency above 19%. Two types of cells were realized namely with Ag-screenprinted contacts and plated Cu-contacts. Efficiencies of cells with screenprinted contacts were up to 19.1% whereas 19.4% was obtained with Cu-plated contacts. These high efficiencies were obtained thanks to several factors am...

Today, at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC) in Buenos Aires (Argentina), imec and its project partners announce the launch of the European Seventh Framework Project MIRACLE. The MIRACLE project aims at developing an operational lab-on-chip for the isolation and detection of circulating and disseminated tumor cells (CTCs and DTCs) in blood. The new lab-on-chip is an essential step towards faster and cost-efficient diagnosis...

Imec’s research into photovoltaics aims at finding techniques to fabricate cheaper and more efficient solar cells. Imec has built up a strong expertise of more than 25 years in silicon solar cell research. Imec leverages this knowhow on a whole range of technologies, going from silicon solar cells (the bulk of today’s commercially available cells), over organic solar cells, to advanced stacks of super-efficient solar cells based on germanium ...

Imec today reported promising results in its Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) mask cleaning program for defect-free EUV masks which are crucial in achieving high chip manufacturing yield. The research program was initiated in collaboration with mask cleaning experts of HamaTech APE GmbH & Co. KG., a fully owned subsidiary of Süss MicroTec AG, and some of imec’s core partners.

Imec and ASML collaborated to qualify ASML’s Tachyon Source Mask Optimization and programmable illuminator system FlexRay™, proving its potential with the demonstration of a 22nm SRAM memory cell. In October 2010, the ASML XT:1900i lithography scanner at imec will be equipped with FlexRay™, enabling imec to step ahead and further explore the ultimate frontiers of immersion lithography.

Micron Technology, Applied Materials, and Ultratech have joined the imec industrial affiliation program (IIAP) on GaN-on-Si technology. This multi-partner R&D program focuses on the development of GaN-on-Si (gallium nitride-on-silicon) process and equipment technologies for manufacturing solid state lighting (e.g. LEDs) and next-generation power electronics components on 8-inch Si wafers.

Imec demonstrates the value of its SiGe above-IC MEMS technology platform for improving performance of state-of-the-art MEMS with the development of new MEMS devices. The new devices are a 15µm SiGe micromirror and a grating light valve for high-resolution displays. The devices were realized with imec’s generic CMOS-compatible MEMS process for the monolithic integration of MEMS devices directly on top of CMOS metallization.

Imec sets major step towards 20nm half pitch interconnects with the realization of electrically functional copper lines embedded into silicon oxide using a spacer-defined double patterning approach.

Imec realized large-area (70cm2) epitaxial solar cells with efficiencies of up to 16.3% on high-quality substrates. And efficiencies of up to 14.7% were achieved on large-area low-quality substrates, showing the potential of thin-film epitaxial solar cells for industrial manufacturing. The results were achieved within imec’s silicon solar cell industrial affiliation program (IIAP) that explores and develops advanced process technologies aiming ...

Today, Intel Corporation, imec and 5 Flemish universities officially opened the Flanders ExaScience Lab at the imec research facilities in Leuven, Belgium. The lab will develop software to run on Intel-based future exascale computer systems delivering 1,000 times the performance of today’s fastest supercomputers, using up to 1 million cores and 1 billion processes to do so.

Imec today officially opens the extension of its state-of-the-art cleanroom at its campus in Leuven, Belgium. Moreover, imec also kicks off the construction of a new office building fitting in its plan for further expanding its high-tech ecosystem. With these extra 18,000m2 cleanroom, lab and office space, imec will have a research campus of 80,000m2 that can stand the comparison with any other high-tech research center worldwide. As such, imec a...

Imec introduced a cognitive baseband radio (COBRA) architecture targeting 4G requirements at up to 1Gbit/s throughput and multiple asynchronous concurrent streams (for instance simultaneous digital broadcasting reception and high-speed internet access). The low-cost, flexible architecture answers a new trend in wireless communication where terminals give their users ubiquitous broadband access to a multitude of services.

Imec presents an improved processing technique for germanium-based thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells resulting in significant reduction of cell cost, an essential step to develop a market for thermophotovoltaic applications. Imec’s newly developed TPV cells are fabricated on germanium substrates with an optimized surface, specifically designed and manufactured for this application.

Imec and TSMC today announced the extension of imec’s Europractice IC service with the offering of TSMC’s 40 nanometer technologies. Subsequent to the close collaboration between imec and TSMC on advanced technology research and development, both companies will offer TSMC’s CybershuttleTM Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) platform for IC prototyping and production services to European companies and academia.