French nanotech boosted by US and Japanese investment

Companies from the US and Japan are investing and launching partnerships in France to take advantage of its nanotechnology expertise, with Minalogic, in Grenoble, among the fast-growing high-tech clusters, according to the French Technology Press Bureau in London.

France has several nanotech clusters, including SCS in Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, the Systematic cluster in the Paris region and Minalogic, in Grenoble.

This year, Minalogic is investing €80 million in eight new collaborative projects focusing on micro- and nanotechnologies for next-generation semiconductors and new manufacturing processes.

Hewlett-Packard recently became Minalogic’s 50th partner and starting in September 2007, the US computer company will give Minalogic members access to 2-teraflop data processors, called Virtual Nodes.

On the R&D side, CEA-Leti, France’s nanotech laboratory, and the Japanese lithography company Nikon have announced they are joining forces to research Double Patterning and Double Exposure technology for 32-nanometre semiconductor devices.

“Leti offers an outstanding, state-of-the-art facility with all of the processes required for Double Patterning,” says Toshikazu Umatate, Executive Officer at Precision Equipment Company, part of Nikon Corporation. Another Japanese company, Yamatake, is already working with Leti to develop nanotechnologies.

International companies looking to expand in nanotechnology are choosing France for their European headquarters. California-based analogue semiconductor company Monolithic Power Systems, recently opened its headquarters in Bernin-Crolles and Boc Edwards, part of the Linde Group, moved its European semiconductor business headquarters from London to Grenoble, in order to be closer to its electronics sector customers and to recruit skilled staff in the region.

France’s standing in healthcare applications of nanotechnology is expected to increase, following the recent announcement of Clinatec, an experimental nanotechnology-based neurosurgery clinic, due to be set up in the next three years.