European Centre of Excellence in
Microwave, Millimetre Wave and Optical Devices, based on
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems for
Advanced Communication Systems and Sensors

About the project

The overall aim of the MIMOMEMS project is to bring the research activity in Radio-Frequency (RF) and Optical-MEMS at the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest) to the highest European level and create an European Centre of Excellence in Microwave, Millimetre Wave and Optical Devices, based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) for Advanced Communication Systems and Sensors.

“Exchange of know-how and experience”. This activity will be done by twinning with two research centres: a) LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse which has strong expertise in silicon based RF and millimetre wave microsystems, photonic devices, and circuits manufacturing and characterization, and b) FORTH-IESL-MRG in Heraklion which has excellent knowledge of IIIVs (GaAs and related semiconductors) and wideband gap semiconductor processing (GaN, AlN).  

The research on RF-MEMS will focus on three sub-topics: Development of silicon micromachined circuits for microwave and millimetre wave communication systems (A1); Development of GaAs monolithic integrated micromachined receiver modules (A2); and Development of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structures on GaN and AlN membranes (A3).

The research on Optical-MEMS will focus on two sub-topics: Heterogeneous integration of silicon and polymer-based micro-photonic devices to improve the functionality and the performance of Optical-MEMS (B1) and Sub-wavelength photonic structures for highly integrated optical systems (B2).

“Recruitment of incoming experienced researchers” will allow IMT to hire Post-Doctoral researchers with expertise in nanophotonics and microwave millimetre wave devices, and MEMS for advanced communication systems and sensors. Also, experienced researchers will be hired with expertise in exploitation of new equipment. The researchers will be initially hired for 24 month fellowships with 6 monthly reviews. At the end of the period, the researchers will have the possibility to become full time IMT employees.

Acquisition, development or upgrading of research equipment” will provide to IMT a Scanning Near field Optical Microscope (SNOM) and an upgrade to 110GHz of the existing 65 GHz set-up for “on wafer” millimetre wave characterization. 

“Organisation of workshops and conferences” will support knowledge transfer at national and international levels through organisation of scientific international sessions and seminars, while “Dissemination and promotional activities” will consist in publication of research results in peer reviewed journal and presentation at international conferences.