Abu Dhabi and Singapore are creating a joint laboratory to conduct semiconductor research.
The Abu Dhabi Singapore Twin Lab is a project of the capital’s Advanced Technology Investment Company (Atic) and the Singapore Economic Development Board.
The two have pledged a total of US$21 million over three years to the lab, which is to focus on collaborative research projects in micro-electro-mechanical systems (Mems), a type of semiconductor chip intended for next-generation products.
The lab is best thought of as a concept more than a place, with the Abu Dhabi end supplying design ideas and the Singapore end putting them together.
This will be the second such lab that Atic has funded. It has also created a partnership with the Technical University in Dresden in Germany, where the two teams are developing 3D semiconductor chips.
"This twin labs concept is quite unique and we are hoping to spread it and reproduce it in other contexts," said Ibrahim Elfadel, professor and head of microsystems engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi.
In the Singapore partnership, Atic-owned GlobalFoundries is the industrial partner, serving as overall programme manager and manufacturing partner.
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is the academic partner and will develop new designs based on market requirements, while the Institute of Microelectronics Singapore will execute the design concepts.
The collaboration aims to ease power issues in high-performance devices such as automobile, industrial and autonomous wireless sensor nodes as well as improving sensitivity and accuracy for effective detection in health, aerospace and industrial applications.
“Singapore has long been a strategic economic partner to Abu Dhabi,” said Ibrahim Ajami, the chief executive at Atic. “This collaboration and focus on Mems R&D [research and development] will further develop the Mems capabilities and IP [intellectual property] base for GlobalFoundries, while helping us to develop local Mems research capabilities in Abu Dhabi by collaborating with a best-in-class institution.”
“EDB is delighted to partner with Atic to enable this R&D collaboration,” said Leo Yip, the chairman of EDB. “The Abu Dhabi-Singapore Mems Twin Lab will offer solutions that help the Mems industry shorten the overall time to market. This will in turn enhance the capabilities and attractiveness of Singapore as a choice location for Mems manufacturing.”
Work is expected to begin early next year. The initial phase of the collaboration is expected to run for three years, with subsequent phases to be planned.
Mr Elfadel said the Dresden twin lab will soon show what can be accomplished by joint research.
“The significance will be illustrated by the type of acceptance of the publications we submit to. We are almost one year through the project, so I am expecting within the next year to start submitting work for review at conferences and journals and we can hopefully get the visibility and a really good indication of our impact,” he said.
Atic is owned by Mubadala, the strategic investment company of the Abu Dhabi Government.
thamid@thenational.ae
