May 20, 2010

Dr. Christine Neuy, CEO of the IVAM Microtechnology Network and coordinator of CORONA, reported on CORONA at this year's MicroNanoTec/HANNOVER MESSE and caused great interest among the visitors of the forum "Innovations for Industry". Her presentation Customer-Oriented Product Engineering of Micro and Nano Devices can be downloaded here.

The latest version of the list of CORONA-publications is online:LINK. This list briefly summarizes all articles about CORONA from July 2008 to December 2009.

May 17-18, 2010

From traditional applications (automotive, military...), the MEMS market is now expanding to high volume applications such as consumer electronics (gaming, mobile phone...). The MEMS ecosystem is evolving at the same time: fabless design houses and pure MEMS foundries are emerging. In this changing environment MEMS+IC co-design via System Level Simulation and data exchange between engineering designers is becoming highly critical.
Coventor, the leading provider of MEMS design-automation software, is organizing a 2-days seminar to further explore this topic. During the first day, leading experts from Schlumberger, ST Microelectronics, Cadence, Coventor etc. will give their vision on challenges given by MEMS+IC and system simulation. The second day will provide a free-of-charge training on a new design platform called MEMS+TM. MEMS+ allows MEMS+IC co-design within existing widely used simulation tools, allowing true understanding of the device and control electronics performance.

The Seminar and the training are free of charge. It is possible to register for either of these days or both. However, spaces are limited, so please register today to ensure your place. For more information and to register, please contact Christophe de Vorges (christophe.devorges@coventor.com) or visit our website http://info.coventor.com/free-seminar-and-workshop-coventor/.

April 21, 2010

Dr. Christine Neuy, CEO of the IVAM Microtechnology Network and coordinator of CORONA, will report on "CORONA: Innovative product engineering tools for MEMS" at the MicroNanoTec/HANNOVER MESSE 2010. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 21 at 2:30 p.m. within the forum "Innovations for Industry".

February 23,2010

The EU-funded project CORONA aims at a more rapid development of MEMS products. This is done with the help of new software tools. Current information about prototypes and already commercially available software will be presented in spring at the HANNOVER MESSE 2010. The new tools - whether as add-on to existing software or as complete new developments - allow cost savings and shorter time-to-market in MEMS product development.

Barry Robertson of the European commission did also confirm the good progress of the project. He gave high marks to CORONA at the Review meeting, which took place on February 23.

CORONA is a NMP project (Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies) in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funded by the European Commission. The CORONA consortium includes companies and institutes that contribute experiences in design methodology and tools for micro- and nanotechnology, MNT production as well as networking and dissemination activities. Apart from IVAM Coventor Sarl from France, Elmos Advanced Packaging BV from the Netherlands, the Polish Instytut Technologii Elektronowej, the German companies Process Relations GmbH and X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG, Theon Sensors SA from Greece and the universities of Cambridge, Great Britain and Siegen, Germany are involved as project partners. Robert Bosch, Cavendish Kinetics und FRT Fries Research & Technology give advice to the project as members of the industrial board.

October 12-14, 2009

Latest project results were presented at the Mikrosystemtechnik-Kongress from October 12 to 14, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. There CORONA was represented by the partners Coventor Sarl, IVAM, Process Relations, University of Siegen and X-FAB.

October 6, 2009

The approach and the goals of CORONA where presented on October 6, 2009 at the International MEMS/MST Industry Forum in the framework of SEMICON Europa in Dresden, Germany. About 50 visitors attended the lectures of Dr. Dirk Ortloff from Process Relations ("MEMS/MST Collaborative Product Engineering for Silicon-based Fabrication Process Development") and Dr. Gisbert Hölzer from X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries ("3D Process Modeling - A Novel and Efficient Tool for MEMS Foundry Design Support"). The questions and comments after the presentations proved the visitors' interest in CORONA's approach as well as in following up future developments within the scope of the project. "Our topic has a strong connection to the persistent focus of the MST scene on standardization", states Dirk Ortloff.

August 30 - September 4, 2009

The COMS conference 2009 on the commercialization of micro and nano systems took place from August 30 to September 4 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The latest themes were discussed within the 280 attendees during three days in 27 sessions and nine plenary talks. On Thursday and Friday technical tours to DTU Danchip and DTI were organized.

IVAM presented together with Process Relations and Coventor Sarl the EU project CORONA in the exhibition and in a talk. In addition, a paper on "A customer-driven approach to product engineering of micro and nano devices - requirement analysis" was presented by Process Relations CTO Dirk Ortloff on Wednesday, September 2, in the frame of the CORONA project.

The focus of themes of COMS laid extremely on nanomedicine and nanobio as well as - as central for the conference - on business strategies, business models, management in times of crisis, financing and education/training. Energy and healthcare were confirmed to be important application fields of micro- and nanotechnologies. Consumer electronics were considered as further ongoing trend.

Altogether, the conference showed that the situation in different companies in times of crisis can range from collapse to high market growth. The next COMS conference will take place in New Mexico, USA, from August 22 to 26, 2010.

August 2-6, 2009

A paper on "Environment for Thin-film Manufacturing Process Development for Product Engineering of Micro and Nano Devices" was presented by the University of Siegen and Process Relations at the SPIE Optics+Photonics conference, which took place from August 2 to 6, 2009 in San Diego, USA.

July 26-30, 2009

"Micro and Nano Product Engineering using Data Management for Silicon-based Fabrication Process Development" is the title of a paper which was introduced by the University of Siegen and Process Relations during the nanotechnology conference IEEE NANO from July 26 to 30, 2009 in Genoa, Italy. The paper describes a comprehensive customer-oriented product engineering methodology for MNT products.

July 1, 2009

One year has passed since the kick-off of the European project CORONA, which aims at accelerating the businesses of European companies by enabling faster product engineering. Nine partners from all along the value chain in micro- and nanotechnologies (MNT) are working towards this goal during the three-year run-time of the project. First results were, amongst others, introduced at the NRW Nano-Conference from June 22 to 23, 2009 in Dortmund, Germany. Crucially the project partners have defined future products and thereby have approached the exploitation of the project results. Several presentations throughout Europe also sparked interest in CORONA from companies outside the consortium.

June 25-27, 2009

The ITE (Instytut Technologii Elektronowej) will participate at the MIXDES - 16th International Conference Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems from June 25 to 27, 2009 in Łodź, Poland with the presentation of a paper entitled "Thermo-Mechanical Aspects of Reliability for Vertically Integrated Heterogeneous Systems". For further information on the conference please visit www.mixdes.org.

The paper presents important aspects of device reliability related to the 3D integration and mechanical stress dependent on the device 3D structure. The aim is to analyse mechanical stress-related reliability issues, along with selected guidelines for designers.

For further information please contact Dr. Grzegorz Janczyk (janczyk (at) ite.waw.pl).

June 22-24, 2009

The ITE (Instytut Technologii Elektronowej) will present the paper "Multi-domain Modeling and Simulation of Heterogeneous Systems" from June 22 to 24, 2009 at the 8th Symposium Diagnostics & Yield Advanced Silicon Devices and Technologies for ULSI Era in Warsaw, Poland. For further information follow the link www.dy.imio.pw.edu.pl.

The paper describes a novel customer-oriented methodology of device modeling and simulation. Selected tools are presented along with various samples of the 3D integration technology. Modern, customer-oriented design methodology is also discussed. Selected samples of device designs for particular 3D technologies are presented along with modeling and simulation of 3D device design samples.

For further information please contact Dr. Tomasz Bieniek (tbieniek (at) ite.waw.pl).

May 18-20, 2009

On May 18, Coventor introduced MEMS+ to the market at the CDNLive! EMEA 2009 event in Munich, Germany. During the conference held annually by Cadence, Coventor presented the new MEMS design software to the Cadence user community. The presentation "MEMS-IC Common Platform" given by Gunar Lorenz was awarded with a "Best Paper Award".

Coventor has been working on MEMS+ in close collaboration with industry partners. The software combines the overall MEMS design knowledge and experience, and plugs it into the Cadence Virtuoso IC design flow. MEMS+ as a design solution for MEMS and IC products solves one of the major problems that keep companies from being successful in MEMS. It closes the divide between MEMS designers and IC designers, creating all "views" needed in Virtuoso, simulating using Spectre or UltraSIM while maintaining the 3D MEMS and multi-physics work environment for the user. The software goes beyond a one-directional design hand-off; it allows for faster response times to design changes and avoids many human errors that are fatal to MEMS and IC prototypes.

This development is part of Coventor's contribution to the research program CORONA, funded by the European Union. For further information please contact Gerold Schröpfer (gerold.schropfer (at) coventor.com).

X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG and Coventor Sarl have jointly written a paper entitled "3D Process Modelling - A Novel and Efficient Tool for MEMS Foundry Design Support" (PDF, 1.1 MB). This article will be published in the proceedings of the 20th IEEE/SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (ASMC) conference 2009 and presented at different occasions during 2009.

The novelty of the tool lies in its use of voxels (3D pixels) rather than conventional 3D CAD techniques to represent the 3D geometry. This way, highly realistic, 3D virtual prototypes of micro-fabricated devices are created. The examination of these virtual prototypes can reveal design errors as well as the impact of design changes and process variations before each mask tape out and fab run, potentially reducing or eliminating design-fabricate-test cycles. To demonstrate the value of this tool to a foundry, the paper describes how the tool has been applied to a MEMS SOI micromachining process. Two detailed case studies are provided: a 3D design check that reveals a design flaw before fabrication, and an analysis of a process failure which confirms the suspected cause of undesired pocket-like cavities on the edges of silicon structures.

For further information please contact Gerold Schröpfer (gerold.schropfer (at) coventor.com).

May 4, 2009

In the first week of May, FiF, an organisation for women in EU research, organises an action week on chances for female scientists in the 7th European Research Programme. Beside the discussion about women's role in science and the attempt to overcome barriers for participation opportunities, another goal of the event is to generate more attention for the successful participation of women, in particular in EU research funding. The opening event of the action week takes place on May 4 in Berlin, Germany in collaboration with the CORONA project coordinator IVAM Microtechnology Network. Participation is free of charge. Further information (in German) is available at www.ivam.de/index.php?content=messe_details&id=409 and www.eubuero.de/arbeitsbereiche/fraueneuforschung/aktionswoche#Auftakt.

April 20-24, 2009

IVAM Microtechnology Network will introduce the project CORONA at MicroTechnology/HANNOVER MESSE from April 20 to 24, 2009, in Hanover, Germany. Dr. Christine Neuy will hold a presentation at the forum "Innovations for Industry" on April 21 and will also be available for questions on the project during the fair. Further information on the IVAM Product Market and the forum at MicroTechnology/HANNOVER MESSE is available on
www.ivam.de/index.php?content=messe_details&id=357&clear=2.

March 10-11, 2009

The ITE (Instytut Technologii Elektronowej) has presented a paper entitled "Reliability Issues in Modeling and Simulation of Heterogeneous Integrated Systems" from March 10 to 11 at the SMART SYSTEMS INTEGRATION conference and exhibition in Brussels, Belgium. The paper refers to some targets of the CORONA project. It discusses a set of selected CAD tools and 3D design methodologies. One of them is the Hedoris (HEterogeneous Device ORIented Simulation) system developed for multi-site distributed product design. Important reliability issues are also discussed in the paper that presents multi-site product development with strong customer feedback intended to interfere and even keep control of the product engineering process.

For further information please contact Dr. Tomasz Bieniek (tbieniek (at) ite.waw.pl).

March 5-6, 2009

Process Relations GmbH has presented a CORONA overview at the New Materials Forum on the 5th and 6th of March in Valencia, Spain (http://www.e-unlimited.com/events/p200253/overview.asp). The overview covered the history of Process Relations and its history in the Promenade project as well as the continuation and extension of the concepts within the CORONA project. Additionally the general project idea and structure were presented.

For further information please contact Dr. Dirk Ortloff (dirk.ortloff (at) process-relations.com).

February 3, 2009

Coventor Sarl has presented the paper "A Novel EDA-Compatible Methodology for Design and Simulation of MEMS with IC" during the 7th GI/GMM/ITG workshop on Multi-Nature Systems on February 3, 2009, in Ulm, Germany (conference webpage: http://www.uni-ulm.de/index.php?id=14106). The paper defines an entirely new methodology for designing MEMS devices and simulating them together with integrated electronics within a standard EDA environment. The tool to realise this is an integrated platform for doing MEMS and IC design, simulation and product development.

At least two aspects of this new methodology are unique. First, the MEMS designer can construct the behavioural model in a 3D view. This direct creation of a MEMS device in a 3D view is expected to be more natural for MEMS engineers who are used to working in a 3D CAD environment. The resulting 3D view differs from a typical feature-based 3D CAD modelling tool in the underlying behavioural model associated with each MEMS component. Second, the behavioural model of the complete MEMS device that is shared with the standard EDA environment can be fully parameterised with respect to manufacturing- and design-dependent variables. The new methodology has been fully implemented and is demonstrated through an RF switch design example.

For further information please contact Gerold Schröpfer (gerold.schropfer (at) coventor.com).

December 2008

Coventor Sarl will be exhibiting at MEMS 2009 (www.mems2009.org/exhibition/exhibitor.html) from January 25 to 29, 2009 in Sorrento, Italy. The company invites interested parties to come to its booth and inform about Coventor’s tools and the development work carried out within CORONA.

December 2008

The competitiveness of high-tech companies very much relies on short time-to-market, which can only be achieved by faster product engineering. The European project CORONA meets this challenge – for three years, having started in July 2008, nine partners all along the value chain in micro- and nanotechnologies (MNT) strive for accelerating the businesses of European companies. Amongst others, the project shall support customer-lead multi-site product development and provide an access to a knowledge-base on design and processes as well as to information and communication technology infrastructure and tools.

Now the website www.corona-mnt.eu has been launched. It presents the objectives, benefits and the methodology of the project and will keep interested persons informed about the results. Furthermore, coming events presenting CORONA will be announced here. CORONA was showcased for the first time at the medical suppliers’ fair COMPAMED from November 19 to 21 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

CORONA is a NMP (Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies) project in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funded by the European Commission. The CORONA consortium includes companies, partly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and institutes that contribute experience in design methodology and tools for micro- and nanotechnology, MNT production in various technological areas as well as networking and dissemination activities. Involved are:

• IVAM e.V., Microtechnology Network, Dortmund, Germany
• Coventor Sarl, Villebon sur Yvette, France
• Elmos Advanced Packaging BV, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
• Instytut Technologii Elektronowej, Warsaw, Poland
• Process Relations GmbH, Dortmund, Germany
• Theon Sensors SA, Athens, Greece
• University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Great Britain
• Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany
• X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG, Erfurt, Germany

For further information, please visit www.corona-mnt.eu.

July 2008

March 2008

The project CORONA – Customer-Oriented Product Engineering of Micro and Nano Devices – has succeeded in the first NMP Call. It is one of the 48 projects in the SMALL area, which convinced in the competition. Altogether, 769 projects have been submitted in the first step.

The project will be funded by the European Commission with three million Euros for three years. The partners come from six nations. IVAM Microtechnology Network is coordinator of the project. Involved are:

• IVAM e.V., Microtechnology Network, Dortmund, Germany
• Coventor Sarl, Villebon sur Yvette, France
• Elmos Advanced Packaging BV, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
• Instytut Technologii Elektronowej, Warsaw, Poland
• Process Relations GmbH, Dortmund, Germany
• Theon Sensors SA, Athens, Greece
• University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Great Britain
• Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany
• X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG, Erfurt, Germany

Objective of the project is to contribute to product engineering for micro and nanotechnology by

a) supporting integrated, distributed, multi-site product development with the customer in lead and control of the process,
b) providing comprehensive and secure access to knowledge-bases for design and fabrication knowledge, and
c) offering information and communication technology infrastructure and tools needed to support customer services, design assistance and fab integration.

The project is scheduled to start officially in mid 2008.