The Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay was established in the year 2006. CEN is funded by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India and is a collaborative project between Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.
These two centres are setup to undertake state-of-the-art research in nanoelectronics, train manpower in this emerging area, interact with industry, research laboratories and government departments. They are to create facilities which will be used by nanoelectronics researchers all over the country. Though both the centres have many areas in common, by and large the focus for the team at IITB is more on the devices and circuits aspects while the team at IISc focuses more on the materials aspects of nanoelectronics. This is consistent with the expertise available at the two places, and the broad thrust of the two Institutes.
This project also represents the first collaborative effort between two leading academic Institutes in the country to carry out a joint program in an important emerging area. IITB and IISc enjoy a close and symbiotic relationship. The two Institutes have a Memorandum of Understanding for collaborative research.
Research at IIT Bombay CEN mainly focuses on:
 | Both Top down and atoms-up approaches. |
| | CMOS Plus - technologies that are similar to CMOS processes with some additional processes for creating novel or nano structures. |
| | Silicon Plus - exploratory processes that might have silicon as the substrate but would have newer materials that are currently not part of the CMOS suite. |
| | Material/ Device characterization and testing at the nano-scale. |
| | Systems prototyping, including nanodevices, MEMS, digital and mixed signal circuits (including RF). |
| | Modeling and simulation of nano scale devices and structures. |
| | Nurture an effective nanoelectronics business incubator program for graduating entrepreneurs and private industries. |
More details regarding the project can be found on the CEN websites – of IITB and IISc.