A key component of LETI's strategic approach to innovation is the spinoff, with its focus on the nurturing of start-up companies using technologies developed at the center.
The French research outfit recently spun off its 100th company, as I noted in a previous posting. Two of the more successful spinoffs are Soitec, the silicon-on-insulator substrate pioneer, and Tronics Microsystems, a custom MEMS contract developer/manufacturer. I visited both companies during my recent visit to the Grenoble-Isere region, so today's Chip Shots will offer some thoughts and observations about Soitec. Tomorrow, I'll delve into the custom capabilities of Tronics.
The first time I met Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve (CEO and chair of what has become the Soitec Group) in the mid-1990s, he and the few other Soitec souls were developing the silicon-on-insulator materials and processes within a corner of the LETI fab. The spinoffs usually get their start within the welcome embrace of LETI's facilities, incubating their tech before leaving the cleanwomb to strike out on their own. I remember scratching my bunnysuit-bonneted head when they described their bonded wafering approach, wondering out loud about the "wafer sandwiches." Little did I know that out of that small module of the LETI fab would evolve one of the leading advanced materials companies in semiconductor manufacturing.
Flash forward to 2002, five years after Soitec left LETI to begin manufacturing on its own. The company had grown up considerably and invited its customers, investors, friends, and, oh yes, us scruffy media types to the grand opening of its second manufacturing line (and first 300 mm version) in Bernin, outside of Grenoble and over the nearby bridge from Crolles and the massive STMicroelectronics campus, a few minutes' walking distance from the SOI company's own growing presence. Although it was grey and rainy that day, Andre and his team celebrated their new facility and the road traveled thus far. The new fab wasn't quite completely fitted out with equipment, but still provided impressive evidence that the era of the performance-enhancing, power-conserving engineered substrate had arrived.
Now it's 2007 and Soitec has become a darling of the Gallic business community, proof that French companies and French technology can compete successfully in the global tech economy. Proof of Soitec's celebrity can also be found in the office of Camille Darnaud-Dufour, the company's VP of communications, who I've known for years, since her days working for various PR agencies before her stint at Soitec. "I feel like I'm the president of his fan club sometimes," she cracked, as she showed me a couple of racks piled with (mostly French) magazines and newspapers featuring stories (including many of the cover variety) about Andre and Soitec.
To say Camille adores and greatly respects Andre would be an understatement---and her feelings are widely shared among the company's rank and file. He is that rare combination of saavy business leader, technological visionary, and really nice guy, someone with an easygoing charisma who genuinely cares for others.
Camille took me on a brief tour of the manufacturing facility, which has a visitor-friendly corridor with plate-glass viewing areas (although you can't see as much since the lines are significantly more crowded with tools than before). Along the way she told me they had picked up additional space next door at the old Memscap fab, where R&D efforts and some acquired assets of the Group---such as Tracit---have taken up residence. We could also see through the outside window several new buildings housing other companies and a hotel in what had been open fields five years earlier.
When I asked her about progress at Soitec's new manufacturing site, half a world away in Singapore, Camille said it was proceeding on schedule, with the fab built and tools coming in as we spoke. The company expects to get first silicon out of the one-million-wafer annual capacity Singapore factory by the middle of 2008. She noted that things were a bit slow in Bernin, and that the fabs were not running at full capacity (although the lines continue to operate on a 24/7 schedule, so it can be that slow!).
The hiccup is partially due to the pullbacks at AMD---one of Soitec's biggest customers and a true champion of SOI---as well as slower-than-expected Playstation game console sales. (SOI lives inside the Cell processor at the heart of PSPs.) Camille's comments resonated a few days after my visit, when the company released its preliminary quarterly results, revealing a bit of a downtick in sales from last year's numbers.
After our tour, Camille managed to get me a few minutes of face time with Andre, who has been busy (but then, he's always busy!) organizing the new SOI Industry Consortium. The group had made its formal launch announcement earlier that week at Semicon Europa, and Andre is its chairman. Made up of 19 (and counting) manufacturers, users, suppliers, and enablers (or are they codependents?), the consortium wants to accelerate "SOI innovation into broad markets by promoting the benefits of SOI technology and reducing the barriers of adoption." Members include materials companies (Soitec, SEH Europe), a healthy chunk of chipmakers (AMD, IBM, Chartered Semi, Freescale, NXP, Samsung, STMicro, TSMC, and UMC), tool suppliers (KLA-Tencor, Lam so far), designers (ARM, Cadence, Synopsys), fabless folks (Innovative Silicon), and research outfits (LETI).
Andre told me the whole idea is to move beyond the "single idea of a single company" or a "one-size-fits-all" approach, to create a group that reflects the "SOI ecosystem." The open consortium will be able to create "shorter, more efficient cycles, with all the pieces linked," thus facilitiating the innovation acceleration at the core of the group's aims. Since a wide range of companies have joined, the multidisciplinary efforts will encourage "best practice sharing and reduce adoption barriers" for SOI, he explained. "We can tighten up the innovation loop, since the end-user or systems people aren't always aware of some of the things going on elsewhere in the ecosystem."
The alliance hopes to expand to at least 60 companies, Andre said, "all across the food chain," including more end-users, equipment suppliers, packaging houses, and research groups. The next step is to elect the remaining seven board members (in addition to Andre and treasurer Tom Lantzsch of ARM) in the next few weeks, then hire a full-time staff and establish a physical HQ in the U.S.
Three main committees---SOI users, tech enablement, and marketing---will also be established. Andre explained the roles of each group: "The users committee will focus on the value of SOI---what does the consumer want? The tech committee will focus on synergy between design and technology, for example. The marketing committee will align the voices of the various members." Andre's role as chairman is to "get the discussion going, and facilitiate a forum."
With SOI wafers already accounting for more than a third of the 300-mm logic market (and growing), with applications widening to include ASICs, analog, and BiCMOS---and possible future uses such as optical interconnects with CMOS and wider play in the MEMS world on the horizon---the future of silicon-on-insulator looks very bright indeed. Given Soitec's overwhelming market share, the company's impressive track record, and now its championing of the idea-whose-time-has-come SOI consortium, I expect Andre and his dedicated, loyal team to keep improving and selling a heckuva lot of those "wafer sandwiches" in the years to come.
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