Research and Development | Shortnews | Reading Time 1 Min.

Fraunhofer IMS launches initiative for a virtual competence center in chip design: Become part of CHIPS.NRW

The competence center CHIPS.NRW aims to promote young chip designers and design ecosystems.

The lack of young talents with the right skills is holding back a strong growth and the potential of microelectronics in NRW. The lack of visibility of the manifold applications of chips in almost all areas of life was identified as a reason why still too few, especially female students, consider chip design as an attractive profession.

At a first work meeting in April, representatives from research and industry met at the Fraunhofer inHaus-Center in Duisburg to discuss the design and role of a virtual chip design competence center in NRW.

Possibilities for sharing design tools and circuit IPs and coordinating prototype production runs were discussed. Furthermore, a joint development of core components, especially for future topics such as 5G/6G, Neuromorphic Computing or RISC-V and Open Hardware is interesting, which could also be coordinated via the competence center.

In a first step, industry requirements for newcomers in chip design profession will be matched by corresponding teaching activities at research institutions. In addition, possibilities for pooling design tools will be worked out in more detail and the design of a competence center as a virtual organization will be concretized. In discussions with the state and federal governments possibilities for funding the projects from EU Chips Act funds and other sources will be explored.

Are you interested in an industrial or research partnership with CHIPS.NRW? Register now at www.chips.nrw and co-create the chip design of tomorrow.

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