Date: 26/05/2011

Europe's semiconductor researcher IMEC partners with Wipro

imec has established imec India in Bangalore, Karnataka, and also signed an R&D partnership agreement with Wipro Technologies, the world's number one semiconductor and R&D service provider.

imec and Wipro have created a joint initiative to co-innovate and build next generation intelligent systems, called Applied Research in Intelligent Systems Engineering (ARISE) which aims to develop nanoelectronics and NEMS-(Nano Electro Mechanical Systems) based solutions for emerging markets such as India.

The focus is on developing Nano tech based sensors, wireless devices and energy harvesting solutions for emerging markets. The expertise is from both the companies as well as additional hiring from other talent sources.

imec is applying best of its knowledge to design a process and system for making complex semiconductor chips with electronic, chemical, and optical function on-board on a single device. There is a huge market for such chips in emerging markets mainly in China and India .So it's the effort from Imec to utilize local talent by closely partnering with best Indian companies such as Wipro to develop the future technology for the masses. Imec praises Wipro's talent in silicon and IT services.

"Our partnership with Wipro underlines our commitment towards providing solutions for emerging markets;" said Luc Van den hove, President and CEO imec. "I'm confident that Wipro's product engineering expertise, industry vertical presence and understanding of the emerging markets will augment our research capability to develop cost-efficient products for many new markets including India."

This R&D alliance is open to other players to participate and build system prototypes based on concurrent innovations in nanotechnology and system engineering, enabling novel applications for emerging markets. Rajesh Ram Mishra, Vice President, Wipro Technologies will head this joint initiative.

"This Wipro-imec initiative 'ARISE' will act as a bridge between industry, academia and research labs to bring in a combination of applied research, system & business design and product engineering capabilities under one roof to deliver highly affordable and sustainable solutions for emerging markets", said T K Kurien, CEO, IT Business & Executive Director, Wipro Limited. "This further underlines our commitment towards solving emerging market challenges through future ready technologies. ARISE will also be a key enabler in reverse innovation of successful emerging market solutions to address the global need."