Philips opens state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities at the High Tech Campus, Eindhoven

June 26, 2004

Philips has extended its Microsystems Plaza facility for innovation in materials, devices, and microsystems in Eindhoven with world-class cleanroom, laboratory, and materials-analysis services. The new MiPlaza cleanroom ranks as one of the largest multi-purpose research cleanrooms in the world. It provides an excellent basis for market driven interdisciplinary research carried out in a spirit of Open Innovation.

Whereas many cleanrooms are typically dedicated to a single process technology such as silicon microelectronics to avoid cross-contamination during production processes, this cleanroom is a multi-purpose, multi-technology class 100-10.000 facility. It occupies an area of 2650 m2, making it one of the largest cleanrooms of its kind in the world. It also offers a broad range of process equipment capable of handling substrates of any shape, in sizes up to 200 mm. The new cleanroom therefore offers researchers a combination of professionalism and flexibility that cannot be found in most academic or industrial research facilities. Users also benefit from the services of the highly professional clean room staff, most of whom have considerable experience in advanced industrial clean room practices. The new cleanroom and laboratory facilities will be officially opened on June 25th with a scientific symposium.

The MiPlaza cleanroom will be used by Philips for its internal strategic innovation programmes, concentrating on topics such as materials and devices for molecular medicine, solid-state lighting, system-in-package solutions for healthcare, lifestyle and technology applications, sensors and actuators and new types of displays. These will all benefit greatly from the broad range of materials and process technologies that can be handled in the new facilities.

As a first step towards fostering Open Innovation, i.e. the notion that progress in the industrial sphere can best be achieved through sharing knowledge and competencies with academic and industrial partners, Philips recently opened up its High-Tech Campus in Eindhoven to other high-tech companies and 'technology accelerators'. Companies are encouraged to make use of both the infrastructure and the considerable expertise and experience available on the Campus and to work, subject to certain conditions, in a spirit of openness and cooperation with Philips Research personnel.

As a further step in fostering Open Innovation, the new cleanroom facilities of MiPlaza are offered to third party researchers and engineers active in the field of materials, devices and Microsystems. First users include Philips Research, Philips CFT, start-up companies such as micro-filtration specialists FluXXion and the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). These institutes and companies not only benefit from major cost savings that come from sharing facilities but also from the stimulating cooperative atmosphere and know-how concentration at MiPlaza . It is an explicit aim of MiPlaza to open up opportunities for new joint ventures and spin-offs and for better integration of university and industrial research.

"The new cleanroom and associated laboratories form the core of the MiPlaza facilities", explains Henk van Houten, Philips Research Senior Vice President, responsible for Philips Research programmes that make use of the MiPlaza facilities. "By attracting high-tech companies and research groups to the Campus and by encouraging the spirit of Open Innovation, they'll help to transform MiPlaza into a true meeting ground and centre of excellence in the fields of materials, devices, and microsystems."

Source: Royal Philips Electronics