Bavarian Chip Design Center strengthens the economy

Funding from the State of Bavaria strengthens the competitiveness of microelectronics particularly among SMEs

Together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC and the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Microsystems and Solid State Technologies EMFT, we have been awarded just under one million euros in funding for the preliminary project for the Bavarian Chip-Design-Center, or BCDC for short. The funding notification was presented by Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger. The preliminary project will focus on establishing the organizational structure, setting up networks and initiating the first topic-based research projects to pave the way for a joint BCDC. In the long term, it is hoped that the BCDC will expand Bavaria’s expertise in IC design, establish a chip design ecosystem and provide SMEs in particular with easy access to application-specific ICs at minimal risk. What’s more, it should expand access to manufacturing capacity, expedite the training and qualification of designers and pave the way for faster innovation rollouts. Also on the agenda is the education and training of the next generation of chip designers

Fraunhofer IIS is providing the project with the benefits of its cutting-edge research into microelectronic and IT system solutions and services as well as of the innovative and integrated digital and mixed-signal systems it develops. The focus here is on designing chips for a wide range of applications and on establishing design solutions for increasingly complex electronic systems. Above all, what we are doing is bringing the entire development process together under one roof – from generating ideas to resolving supply chain issues to acting as an interface to semiconductor manufacturers.