Major CFI win by CMC keeps Canada at leading edge of microsystems development

NSERC funding renewal next step

CMC Microsystems has come up big in the latest competition of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), securing $19.3 million towards a $48-million program aimed at dramatically increasing the scope and impact of microsystems in industrial and other applications. CMC — through a university consortium led by Queen's Univ — developed the concept and proposal for Embedded Systems Canada (emSYSCAN), which won the single largest amount awarded in the CFI competition.

The project has the participation of 37 universities and builds upon CMC's previous CFI-funded projects — the Systems on a Chip Research Network (SOCRN) and the National Design Network. CMC will now bid to manage the program through a process led by Queen's — an exercise prompted by the fact that it is not eligible to directly receive CFI funds.

Assuming that CMC wins the management contract, its task along with the university consortium is to secure matching funds from nine provinces, with Ontario expected to provide half the required amount. The remaining 20% will be secured through equipment vendor discounts from industry.

Running from 2010 to 2015, emSYSCAN, represents a major advance in Canadian microsystems development, which encompasses micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), microfluidics, photonics, microelectronics, embedded systems/software and nano-scale devices.

"This is the next level of embedded systems that are going to be increasingly important, with local intelligence for automotive, medical, structural and other applications," says CMC president and CEO, Dr Ian McWalter. "There are now more embedded systems being shipped than motherboards but there's a lot of research to be done especially in sensor technology … The goal is more competitive Canadian industry and highly qualified personnel."

The emSYSCAN project relies on four different groups of equipment to allow researchers and their end user partners to design and validate a new range of microsystems concepts: computer-aided design tools and intellectual property; desktop development systems for proof-of-concept work; rapid prototyping (characterization, integration and assembly) equipment to be installed at four regional centres; and, a real-time embedded software laboratory at the Univ of Waterloo to design, analyze and verify application code for microprocessors, microcontrollers and new hardware such as network-on-chip.

Design tools will be accessible through a Queen's Univ-managed license server with provision for shared access.

The original CFI proposal says the research themes are aligned with the four main priority areas outlined in the 2007 federal S&T Strategy.

"emSYSCAN will provide researchers with a comprehensive toolbox of technologies and methodologies that will enable an unprecedented range of internationally competitive research into all aspects of Microsystems design." — emSYSCAN proposal to CFI

Research themes

1) Rapid system modeling, design and prototyping that requires system-level modelling tools. Research is positioned at the convergence between information processing and microtechnology;

2) Wireless networks incorporating research topics relating to wireless senor networks. These are intelligent networks for applications requiring portability, mobility and/or ease of installation, connecting sensing and actuating devices to each other and larger systems;

3) Embedded systems, architectures and programming. This area includes a variety of research topics relating to overall microsystem topology, design of processing architectures, fault tolerant systems, test and performance optimization, subsystem component design and embedded software; and,

4) Microfluidic, sensing and analysis systems to exploit the advantages of microsystems stemming from low power consumption, low cost, constant monitoring and minimal sample requirements. Expected growth in the area will be driven by the health care system.

"It will be accessible to the whole design network community. There will be two waves of infrastructure in 2010-11 and 2013-14," says McWalter. "

The success of CMC in securing funding for emSYSCAN strengthens its ongoing strategy to broaden the economic impact of microsystems R&D although its progression has been anything but linear. As it reaches the end of its current five-year strategy, CMC has fallen short of achieving the $500-million funding target it established back in 2004 (R$, June 30/04). That includes $70-million from Industry Canada to establish a pre-competitive Microsystems Partners Network program that never materialized.

It has also faltered on a proposed private sector subsidiary that would have undertaken many of the above network's functions. The subsidiary was intended to provide a detailed level of technical expertise to companies as well as providing marketing and commercialization services (R$, July 23/07). McWalter says the tough economic environment for industry has not killed the subsidiary but slowed its evolution.

"It hit the teeth of the recession. We've had a few engagements with university spin-offs but we've not been doing business directly. It's working at an extremely low level," he says. "That will change as we get funded again and people have the confidence we are going to be here. We have not given up on it although it will be quite different from what we originally envisioned."

News on NSERC proposal expected by end of year

CMC's next strategic plan is embedded in its proposal to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), which has been a stable, long-term supporter of its research and commercialization objectives. Over the past 10 years, NSERC has funded CMC to the tune of $30.5 million (1999 to 2004) and $48 million (2005-2010. McWalter says the request for the next five years is approximately $40 million, which he says reflects the granting council's tight budget.

"We could use about 20 to 20% more but with the NSERC, CFI and cash-in-kind funding we'll have about $170 million in value for the next five years," says McWalter. "An international review panel is scheduled for August 20th and the NSERC proposal will go to a decision in November so we should hear by Christmas."

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