IMG_0202.JPG

Originally uploaded by jeremyfain01.

ST Microelectronics was an amazing visit: the Italian French company manufactures cutting-edge nanotechnology devices, competing with Intel, Texas Instrument and co. We could only visit the Crolles 1 factory, Crolles 2 being the HQ of a very interesting coopetition model: ST Microelectronics (ex- SGS Thomson: SGS, an Italian company, had merged with Thomson’s nanotech division), FreeScale (ex-Motorola) and Philips have successfully set up a joint-venture aiming at producing top notch chips for many growth industries (mobile, wireless, printing, PDAs, laptops, consumer electronics, defence, etc.). The cooperative model is very genuine and avant-garde: all companies share profits, investments, innovation issued from collaborative research (teams are all American-Dutch-French-Italian), successes and failure.

I was obviously not allowed to take any picture from the inside, but I can tell you the inside factory is impressive: you basically feel in Q’s lab, in James Bond: robots are hanging around with high tech tools, the oxygen in most rooms is entirely renewed every 6 seconds, any machine is worth between 2m euros and 15 m euros, etc.