Scientific instruments maker !%FEI%! and CEA-Leti, a government-funded technological research organization based in Grenoble, France, have signed a three-year agreement to characterize advanced semiconductor materials for the 22-nm technology node and beyond. CEA-Leti, working with its partners on the MINATEC micro- and nanotechnology innovation campus based in Grenoble, will apply its expertise in holography to improve the sensitivity of dopant profiling. FEI of Hillsboro, Ore., will provide nanobeam diffraction technology to measure changes in strain and other crystallographic parameters with its Titan scanning transmission electron microscope. The goal is to advance the technology past the critical technical roadblocks facing the semiconductor industry as it tries to push integrated circuit devices past the 22-nm barrier.