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Alcatel Thales III-V Lab mission
Alcatel Thales III-V Lab (III-V Lab), was created July 1st, 2004, through the signatures of R&D cooperation contract between Alcatel and Thales. Alcatel and Thales are two French companies, world leaders in their respective fields of Telecommunications, Defence and Security.
The objective behind III-V Lab is organized following the French GIE rules (Groupement d’Intérêt Economique) and its management is equally shared between the two partners.
The mission of III-V Lab is to perform advanced industrial research and development on III-V compound semiconductor technology, which is considered as a key point for the future systems of the two companies. The cooperation agreement allows the gathering of all the R&D experts in III-V technology of both companies and the sharing of all the expensive pieces of equipment in a single laboratory. The objective is to fully exploit all possible synergies for the development of a common opto- and micro-electronic technology which has dual applications. It has been considered that both partners have brought balanced efforts, skills, equipment and background IPs, so that the costs of this common laboratory may be equally shared.
III-V Lab organization
III-V Lab is organized in six research groups, each combining Alcatel and Thales teams. These research groups are dedicated to :
- Material science and epitaxy, for the growth of advanced III-V heterostructures
- Laser diode and advanced photonic device technology development for various telecommunication and optronic applications
- Ultra-fast photonic sources and detectors
- Imaging, photodetectors arrays, mainly for infra-red thermal detection
- Digital, mixed-signal and microwave microelectronics, including ultra-fast InP HBT ICs and GaN high power microwave circuits
- Assembly of opto- and micro-electronic modules and demonstrators
It is staffed with about 100 highly skilled R&D professionals and about 15 PhD students, with complementary skills in material science, epitaxy, device clean-room processing, opto-electronic and microwave device physics and modelling, fast digital and microwave circuit design, optoelectronic and microwave modules assembly technology.
III-V Lab facilities
III-V Lab is installed on two nearby sites, in the south of Paris. One site is in Marcoussis, hosted by the Alcatel R&I centre and the other one is in Palaiseau, hosted by the new Thales TRT research centre in the Ecole Polytechnique campus. The Thales and Alcatel teams are split on the two sites according to the R&D projects and to the common III-V Lab organization. The management and administration of III-V Lab are located in Marcoussis, together with the InP HBT and GaN HEMT micro-electronic, high-speed opto-electronic and module activities, while the imaging photodetectors, the laser and advanced photonic technology developments are in Palaiseau.
The III-V Lab facilities include several MBE, GS-MBE and MO-VPE reactors for epitaxial growth ; 1200 m2 of clean rooms (class 10 000 or better) equipped with modern tools for opto- and micro-electronic device processing; numerous laboratories for the most sophisticated characterization of materials, ultra-fast opto-electronic devices and digital circuits, low noise and high power microwave circuits characterizations; a design centre for digital and microwave circuits; a workshop for the assembly of complex opto-electronic and microwave modules and demonstrators.
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