Insulin resistance, the key feature of the metabolic syndrome, not only causes type 2 diabetes but also gives rise to its deadliest complications - the cardiovascular disease. A key factor in the development of insulin resistance is the accumulation of triglycerides in liver and muscle, a process that seems to be highly regulated. NACARDIO is a multidisciplinary project aiming to develop and commercialise a nano-biosensor technology, capable of analysing extremely small amounts of protein in small sample volumes. The technology can be used to quantify proteins involved in lipid storage to investigate if any of these proteins are potential biomarkers for the development of insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. The sensor technology is based on single electron tunnelling (SET), a phenomenon well explored for low temperature applications. State of the art nanofabrication utilising metallic nanoparticles now make this technology platform available for room temperature operation. SET-technology provides unique possibilities for biosensing. Direct electrical detection can be made with sensitivity greater than for any other existing or proposed technique. To achieve the goals of NACARDIO, extensive multidisciplinary work addressing questions at the interface between nanotechnology, physics, electrical engineering, surface chemistry, biotechnology and medical sciences will be performed. Frontline experimental approaches encompassing peptide-stabilised gold nanoparticles, electron-beam lithography, nano-imprint, molecular self-assembly, engineered antibody-fragments, protein expression and fluidic simulations will be employed to fabricate the sensor and ensure biological functionality and usability. The efforts will result in a technology that not only revolutionises cardiovascular research and diagnostics, but also promotes other innovative approaches including analyses of extremely small sample (e.g. single-cell) and real-time monitoring of cell-signalling.

Recently, a new ceramic material, i.e. calcium copper titanate, CaCu3Ti4O12, (CCTO) showed a radically new property, i.e. an impressive dielectric constant k=105 at 1 MHz, which is nearly constant over a wide temperature range (100-400K). We propose to fabricate high capacity density condensers (>500 nF/mm2) for development of a new integrated electronics. It has a huge economic impact (the potential market is billions US$). Many attempts beyond the state of the art are proposed. A nanodescription of the material will be achieved by developing nanocharacterization for a knowledge based activity oriented to material improvement. Pure CCTO bulk properties will be firstly optimized by strongly reducing impurities and anomalies, and then they will be improved beyond the state of the art investigating doped CCTO. We expected that a certain kind of phase composite Ca1+xCu3-xTi4O12 (x=0-3) could decrease the dissipation factor. This activity will produce targets of pure CCTO (first) and then doped CCTO for physical deposition such as laser ablation and sputtering that will be further developed during the project by using novel approaches based on multicomponent deposition. Metal organic chemical vapor deposition development activity guarantees the required high step coverage for use in 3D structures. As a breakthrough, new equipment will be developed within the project for laser assisted Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE), which uses a laser to change in situ during the deposition the CCTO composition. The advantage of this approach is the easily scalability to large surfaces for industrial processes. A specific silicon processing (high temperature resistant metal gates, etching,...) will be developed to integrate CCTO deposition in the silicon technology and produce high density planar (2D) capacitive condensers (>500 nF/mm2) working up to 4 GHz. The implementation of 3D structures will allow achieving results that are even more ambitious.

The impact of biomineralization processes on lithographic and microelectronic production processes has not yet been explored. As opposed to conventional industrial manufacturing, the biological synthesis of silica occurs under mild physiological conditions of low temperatures and pressures, with clear advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, parallel production, and impact on the environment. The integration of nature-mimic biomineralization processes with micro- and nanofabrication will be a unique route to make them usable in the medium-long term for industrial application and production. In particular, some peculiar proteins of sponges (silicateins) catalyze the reaction of silica polymerization to give ordered structures. Besides this catalytic activity, when the proteins are assembled into mesoscopic filaments, they serve as scaffolds that spatially direct the synthesis of polysiloxanes over the surface of the protein filaments. Hence, these biomolecules present the combined characteristics of: (i) chemical action (catalysis) for the formation of silica, and (ii) patterning action, by driving the silica on the surface of the filaments. We plan to exploit this unique combination within a novel technology, whose demonstrator will be the realization of patterned, aligned assembly of silica fibers, and their employment as insulating layers for prototype transistor devices. Two parallel strategies will be pursued for the production of large amounts of silicatein: (i) expression of the recombinant proteins, and (ii) development of in vitro primmorph cultures. Soft lithography techniques will be used for the controlled patterned deposition of molecules. Specific approaches will be designed and implemented, for the hierarchical assembly of silicatein fibers into functional networks. The multidisciplinary team involved in this project has the know-how in biosilicification/lithography and the intellectual property rights in enzymatic silica formation.

Today we live in a world completely dominated by vision with a strong tendency to a constant increase of visual information. However, miniaturization of elements is done by applying similar optical principles known to the designers for many decades. Novel fabrication technologies are permanently developed and applied, but there is no consequent search for new vision principles to fully exploit the newly gained technological capabilities that allow completely new and unexpected fields of application. Main research projects at the Fraunhofer-Institute are related to these topics. Based on a strong experience in optics engineering and a well established facility of optical fabrication technology from macro- to nanoscale novel optical systems are developed. Recently demonstrated bio-inspired vision systems such as planar artificial compound eyes for ultra-compact image acquisition are just a first step in this direction. Within the proposed project, novel vision systems will be designed and manufactured applying electron-beam- and photo-lithography. The main focus of research is related to artificial receptor arrays on a curved basis. This is a highly demanding and at the same time promising topic not only for artificial compound eyes but also for the simplification of classical imaging systems. The major difference of natural and artificial image acquisition systems at this stage is the planar arrangement of the artificial receptor arrays compared to the curved geometry of the natural ones. This is the consequence of todays limitation to planar lithographic patterning technologies. The advantages of a curved basis compared to a planar one are obvious: There are the immanence of a large field of view, the avoiding of off-axis aberrations and declining illumination with increasing field angle. Different technologies are to be applied and evaluated such as laser-lithography on curved surfaces and polymer (flexible) artificial receptor arrays.

The technological objective of MONARCH is to produce the world????'s first scanning electron microscope (SEM) on-a-chip. Such an instrument would represent a step-change in electron beam (e-beam) technology comparable with the introduction of the silicon chip to electronics. This device will be orders of magnitude smaller than existing technology, would operate at lower voltages and have an order of magnitude higher resolution for a fraction of the cost of a current state-of-the-art SEM. It would provide the first instrument capable of rapidly scanning a surface layer and producing an image with elemental identification at atomic resolution. This disruptive technology has dramatic implications for many sectors other than electron microscopy, including e-beam lithography, genetic sequencing, ultra-high density data storage and focussed ion beam milling. In particular it is expected to be a key enabling tool for the booming sectors of nanotechnology and MNEMS (micro-nano-electromechanical systems). Crucially it could also allow lithography on a scale suitable for true nano-electronics.The physics behind the MONARCH project are beautifully simple: by scaling the device dimensions down to the nano-scale, the voltages, beam energies and aberrations are scaled down proportionally. The system becomes diffraction-limited, rather than aberration-limited, and the lenses can be electrostatic rather than magnetic. These principles have been known for decades, but the realisation of such devices has only been made possible through very recent parallel advances in several nano-machining technologies: improved FIB techniques, the evolution of MEMS technology and scanning probe microscopy (e.g. very short focal length electrostatic lenses). In short these techniques have transformed a thought-experiment into a realistic possibility: ultra-low energy, ultra-high power, ultra-pure e-beams.MONARCH will deliver a prototype operational integrated SEM-on-a-chip system.

WADIMOS proposes to develop a generic technology for the realization of complex electro-photonic integrated ICs using standard CMOS processing technologies. These ICs will contain a photonic interconnect layer incorporating microsource arrays and ultracompact WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) functionality based on silicon nanophotonic wire circuits, driven directly from by the CMOS electronic circuitry. The photonic interconnect layer is intended to be incorporated in between the uppermost copper layers of an electronic IC. The availability of such ICs will benefit many applications in telecom, local access, datacom, automotives, avionics and sensing, on- and off-chip interconnect. Two applications will be investigated in particular: a 100TB/s datalink for a maskless-lithography tool based on a massively parallel e-beam tool and an optical network-on-chip based on a wavelength routed network directly integrated with CMOS circuits. The latter is addressing the expected limitations imposed by future purely electrical interconnects in complex MPSoC systems. These two applications are each backed by an industrial partner and their architectural design will be studied in separate workpackages, resulting in a set of specifications for the subcomponents forming the electro-photonic IC. Based on these inputs the different subcomponents will be designed, fabricated and characterized. The most relevant subcomponent is a III-V silicon heterogeneous multi-wavelength microsource array, which will be realized fully in a CMOS-pilot line, based on a process previously developed by project partners and independently by INTEL/USCB researchers. Finally, the different subcomponents will be integrated into two demonstrators each addressing one of both applications under study.

In the CMOS manufacturing environment, the mask-based optical lithography technique is up to now the driving solution to deal with all industry concerns. Nevertheless, this solution becomes less effective for each new technology node. Effectively, it requires more and more complex and expensive masks due to the introduction of optical proximity correction and phase shift techniques. The blow up of the tool price plays also an important role in the overall cost of ownership of this technique. This trend opens opportunities for the Mask-Less Lithography (ML2) technology, based on multi-beam principles and developed by the two European companies MAPPER and IMS Nanofabrication AG. The cost effective model of the ML2 option in association with the high resolution capability of the electron lithography and a reasonable throughput target represents an attractive alternative for lithography and is supported by some key CMOS manufacturers around the world, like TSMC, STMicroelectronics, QIMONDA, TOSHIBA, and Texas Instruments…_x000d_

CATHERINE will provide a new unconventional concept for local and chip-level interconnects that will bridge ICT beyond the limits of CMOS technology._x000d_

The newly established Materials Science and Nanotechnology Institute (UNAM) is the first national research institute of Turkey in the area of atomic scale materials and nanotechnology. UNAM is growing as a major research facility equipped with all necessary research infrastructure and advanced research tools to carry out forefront R&D activities. This advanced research facility is available to the researchers of all other institutions. As a centre of excellence, UNAM is expected to provide scientific advising for the state of the art research problems in nanotechnology. Through this project, the Institute can rapidly reach its full potential for research and technological innovation and emerge as an internationally competitive center, integrated firmly into the European Research Area. UNAM is recently established; despite wide recognition within Turkey, so far our exposure to the European scientific community has been limited. We strongly desire to improve this and develop connections to and collaborations with European laboratories, university groups and research institutes through mechanisms to be established in this project. However, UNAM currently suffers from a bottleneck in funding of travel, conference organization. In addition, UNAM needs to increase its PhD staff through postdoctoral and research scientist positions, since full faculty positions through the university are very limited. There is need for a number of trained personnel in high-technology equipment relevant to nanotech in Turkey, such TEM, FIB, lithography equipment. The proposed project will allow UNAM administration to offer internationally competitive salaries for young Turkish scientists receiving doctorates every year in the USA, reversing the brain drain, as well as young European scientists with technical expertise. The proposed project will be critical in overcoming all of these difficulties.

DOTFIVE is a three-year IP proposal for a very ambitious project focused on advanced RTD activities necessary to move the Silicon/germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) into the operating frequency range of 0.5 terahertz (THz) (500 gigahertz GHz) enabling the future development of communication, imaging or radar Integrated Circuits (IC) working at frequencies up to 160 GHz . For a given lithography node bipolar transistors and more recently HBT have always lead the frequency race compared to MOS devices, while offering higher power density and better analogue performances (transconductance, noise, transistor matching).The main objective of this highly qualified consortium is to establish a leadership position for the European semiconductor industry in the area of millimeter wave (mmW) by research and development work on silicon based transistor devices and circuit design capabilities and know-how. SiGe HBT is a key reliable device for applications requiring power > few mW (future MOS limitation) and enabling high density, low cost integration compared to III-V. To achieve the goal DOTFIVE unites a powerful consortium: