Funding for preliminary project for the Bavarian Chip Design Centre (BayCDC)

MUNICH Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger sets the course for the Bavarian Chip Design Centre (BayCDC). Bavaria thereby intends to bundle and expand the foundation for chip development: “The current supply bottlenecks in the semiconductor sector show us how central semiconductor chips are today for many industrial sectors such as the automotive industry. We must further strengthen our technological independence in this area. Bavaria already has excellent competencies in business and science in the field of chip design. We want to consolidate and further develop this with a Bavarian Chip Design Centre, which is also to become a contact point for SMEs. The future of semiconductors lies on chip design and less on production. Here, Taiwan and South Korea have a head start in manufacturing technology. That’s why in Bavaria we focus less on production and more on the preliminary stage. It takes high technology to fit such complex structures into such a small space. This technology of the future is intended to make the Free State more independent and forms another stable pillar for the Bavarian economic foundation of the 21st century. Chip design represents a key competence for Bavaria as a semiconductor location and is a central element of the Bavarian Semiconductor Initiative. The three Fraunhofer institutes are excellent partners for the Free State to reinforce the players and expertise in chip design. I would also like to thank the Free Voters and the CSU for financing the preliminary project of €1 million from the parliamentary group reserve. This will lay the foundation for the chip design centre.”
 

Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Aiwanger, together with Florian Streibl (FW) and Kerstin Schreyer (CSU), presented the funding decision to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen is in charge of this project. Prof. Dr. Albert Heuberger, Executive Director of the IIS Institute, says of the project, in which the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied and Integrated Safety (AISEC / Garching) and for Microsystems and Solid State Technologies (EMFT / Munich) are involved alongside universities: “With the Bavarian Chip Design Center, we are making an important contribution to the expansion of semiconductor and chip research in Bavaria and further increasing the attractiveness of Bavaria as a high-tech location. Bundling the chip design competencies of Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer AISEC and Fraunhofer EMFT, creating low-threshold access to semiconductor manufacturing and training professional skilled workers is paying dividends in European efforts to expand the key industry of microelectronics. These are necessary to be able to guarantee Europe’s technological independence in the future.”

The centre is to be available as a contact for medium-sized users of semiconductor chips. The main project is to be funded from 2023. At the moment, it is still subject to budgetary constraints. The planned chip design centre is a central element of the Bavarian Semiconductor Initiative, which the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs launched in autumn 2021 to strengthen Bavaria as a semiconductor location.