MICROELECTRONICS RESEARCH PROGRAMME TAKES OFF.

Barely a year after the MEDEA+ programme, a microelectronics research and development (R&D) programme for system innovation on silicon for the e-economy, was launched by Eureka, 38 projects are under way, involving around 220 partners from 17 countries. The MEDEA+ programme began in January 2001 with the aim of taking Europe to the top of the global microelectronics league through fostering pre-competitive R&D collaboration. The 38 projects were selected from 64 submitted to the MEDEA+ office. "The extreme interest of so many partners willing to cooperate, and the high acceptance rate of the projects clearly demonstrate that we correctly targeted the necessary work to further boost Europe's microelectronics industry", according to Jean-Pierre Noblanc, Chairman of the MEDEA+ board. "We also appreciate that the public authorities are fully committed to supporting R&D for this industry on a par with other macroeconomic regions in the world", he added.The 38 projects represent more than 10,000 man years. They focus on fundamental technology issues such as sub-100nm CMOS processes and on developing and gaining expertise in applications such as network access, multimedia and security...