"Leti and EVG have a long history of collaborating on ways to bring new technologies to market at reasonable costs for the benefits of our customers," said Laurent Pain, patterning programme manager in Leti's silicon technologies division. "Through INSPIRE, we will develop new ways for them to use nano-patterning technology to create new products for a wide range of applications."
In addition to creating an industrial partnership to develop nano imprinting process solutions, INSPIRE is intended to demonstrate cost of ownership benefits for a range of applications, such as photonics, plasmonics, lighting, photovoltaics, wafer level optics and bio-technology.
Leti and EVG will jointly support the development of new applications from the feasibility study stage to supporting the first manufacturing steps. The partners say they will also transfer integrated process solutions to their customers, thus lowering the entry barrier for adoption of the technology.
"EVG is excited about the value that the partnership with Leti in the INSPIRE programme will provide to industry," said Markus Wimplinger, corporate technology development and IP director at EV Group. "After more than a decade of research and development activities, EVG has propelled nano imprint technology to a level of maturity that enables significant advantages for certain applications compared to traditional optical lithography."