Aware of the opportunities driven by nano technologies and their potential impact on microsystems and their system applications, with the approval of the LAAS management, we changed the acronym of our group. On February 17 2008, MIS (Micro Integration System, created in 1998) has become N2IS for “Nano Ingénierie et Intégration Systèmes” in French, or “Nano Engineering and Systems Integration” in English.

The strength and specificity of our research group is to share expertise relevant for the design of new micro and nanosystems from the atomic level up to the systems level. Two alternative approaches are usually followed, either design and fabricate systems using glass, polymer or silicon micro/nanomachining at the LAAS clean room facility, or take from the shelves and architecture systems to implement new functions.

Three main challenges have been addressed:

• We developed original and high-performance technological approaches enabling: 
  • the3D integration of full polymer or heterogeneous (Si/polymer) 
  • the integration of nanoscale functionalized materials for fluidics, optics and energetic applications.

Our expertise in atomic scale simulation is an essential lever of our activity because it provides a rational understanding of manufacturing processes that guides their optimization and sometimes gives hints to elaborate new functions.

• We proposed and implemented new concepts and methods for point of care diagnosis and fundamental biology by way of micro/nano fluidic systems.
• We devise new embedded microsystems dedicated to pervasive networks focused on structural and health monitoring (monitoring of elderly and structural aircraft monitoring).

Highlights and Major Achievements

Based on an integration objective, we mapped our research activity into four major complementary scientific and technological topics :