Thomson, CNET of France in silicon-on-insulator research

A cooperation agreement involving research on a silicon-on-insulator technology designed to make circuits with a low sensitivity to radiations was just signed. This technology should eventually replace the SOS (silicon-on-sapphire) technology still used by Thomson Semiconductors to make military and space circuits, but whose progress is hamperd by problems of cost and defects in the epitaxial layer. The implications of research in this direction are discussed.