ST and Politecnico di Milano to build MEMS research centre

Semiconductor company STMicroelectronics has announced a five-year collaboration agreement with Italy’s Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan) — a scientific-technological university that trains engineers, architects and industrial designers.

At the heart of the agreement is the establishment of a joint research centre on advanced materials for sensors (STEAM), leveraging the longstanding collaboration between ST and Politecnico. The joint research centre has been created to give professors, researchers and PhDs the means to conceive, design and develop MEMS technology and to create new MEMS products. This will allow the Politecnico di Milano to become even more attractive for talented academics, offering multiple doctoral scholarships and positions for professors and researchers in four areas of common interest and in the related materials sector.

The expansion of the existing collaboration will allow the further development of the centre of excellence dedicated to cutting-edge sensors in Lombardy, close to Milan. The agreement will also contribute to fuel ST’s research and development roadmap in advanced sensors, MEMS and analog as the teams investigate, develop an understanding of, and create technologies and skills to further business needs in areas including advanced MEMS, motion control, power electronics and galvanic isolation.

The agreement also provides for an infrastructure upgrade for the Politecnico di Milano, starting with the construction of a state-of-the-art 200 mm pilot line in addition to the current 150 mm line of the PoliFab clean room. Dedicated to the development of new MEMS technologies, the new pilot line will be used to support research projects, training and thesis elaboration.

“The research centre between Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics is the result of an extraordinary joint effort on key areas such as sensors and artificial intelligence,” said the Rector of Politecnico di Milano, Ferruccio Resta. “This investment also aims at innovating for the manufacturing sector, driver of the Italian economy.

“The laboratory, open to companies, is part of an ambitious project to create a real innovation district in the Parco dei Gasometri in Bovisa (a neighbourhood of Milan). Here, a real world-class ecosystem will develop, capable of competing with the best efforts abroad. The centre of excellence embodies the interaction between public and private sectors, between universities and companies. It is one of the strategic activities of the university, increasingly oriented towards the development of advanced research and the competitiveness of the territory.”

“This agreement between ST and the Politecnico di Milano will be a key contributor to our MEMS and sensors research and development operations,” added Jean-Marc Chéry, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics. “It is a great example of what can be done within the framework of ST’s global approach to cooperative research with universities and research bodies: supporting leading technology and engineering ecosystems where ST is present, developing talent and building the future together.

“We see significant value and opportunity in expanding our cooperation to investigate, understand and develop technologies and skills to meet our future business needs in such areas as advanced MEMS, motion control, power electronics and galvanic isolation.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Simona

Please follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook. You can also subscribe for FREE to our weekly newsletter and bimonthly magazine.