Research partners (description)

Institute of Electron Technology

The Institute of Electron Technology (IET) is the research centre established in 1966 by the Council of Ministers. The Institute was organised on the basis of the Electronics Department and the Magnetic Department of the Institute of Fundamental Technical Problems and the Semiconductor Technology Department of the Institute of Physics within the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1970 the Institute was moved from the Polish Academy of Science and became Industrial Institute supervised by the Ministry of Industry (presently Ministry of National Economy).

The Institute of Electron Technology is a major Polish electronics research centre with a primary focus on semiconductor technology.

The mission of the Institute is to develop and commercialise technologies in the field of semiconductor devices and microelectronics. The Institute of Electron Technology plays significant role on the national and international level; it contributes to the progress in semiconductor electronics in Poland and develops international co-operation in new advanced areas.

It has established a national reputation for leading-edge accomplishments in a variety of disciplines such as:

• research in the field of semiconductor physics and semiconductor electronics; - characterisation of semiconductor materials and structures;
• theoretical studies on semiconductor devices, in particular transport phenomena in mesoscopic structures;
• development of new technologies for devices based on silicon and III-V compounds, including molecular beam epitaxy.

These activities facilitate the development of:

• monolithic ICs: digital and analogue (bipolar and MOS, LSI and VLSI), including Applications Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs);
• optoelectronic devices: light sources (LEDs and lasers for fibre optics communications), detectors and detector arrays;
• semiconductor sensors.

In addition, the Institute of Electron Technology undertakes educational activities in the above mentioned fields and consults state owned industry and private enterprises.

The Institute trains highly qualified engineering personnel and is involved in the adaptation of European standards to the Polish electronics industry.

The Institute employing over 300 staff, making both research and small scale production. They have experience in micro-mechanics and ISFETs development and ASIC design. They are equipped in 3(m silicon processing facility having a possibility of the micro-mechanics development. Ion-sensitive layer ISFET was developed. In the same co-operation development of more sensitive device has started. In IET a family of micro-mechanical pressure sensors up to 1600 kPa was developed. For micro-mechanical modelling SAMCEF software package is used. Development of particular packaging and encapsulation is possible. For signal processing we can use our experience gained from development of A/D measurement interface (CMOS 1 (m) based on own core of 8-bit controller described in VHDL (equivalent of 8051) and prototyped in EUROPRACTICE foundry. ASIC group has at the disposal modern CAD tools (CADENCE, MENTHOR-GRAPHICS, Synopsys).


The responsible person is prof. Andrzej Kobus