A new building for the Engineering of Adaptive Systems Division EAS is coming into being close to the campus of the Technical University of Dresden. This means a significant improvement of the general conditions for research work on solutions for the networked world of tomorrow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, on its site in Saxony. In particular, the numerous areas for experimental halls, electronics laboratories and measuring rooms which occupy more than a quarter of the floor space, will offer EAS researchers ideal conditions for new developments.

The future workplaces are expected to be ready to move into in 2020. With an overall area of around 46,300 square feet, the new institute building will provide about twice as much space as that which is currently available at the long-standing site in Zeunerstraße. The EAS shares the latter with the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI, which will use the whole of the previous institute building after the move. The expansion and increased amount of space are absolutely essential for Fraunhofer IIS/EAS, because there is currently no scope to deal with the increasing requirements in terms of modern laboratory facilities and test capabilities. The continuous growth of the workforce is also increasing the pressure. Furthermore, the property on the Münchner Straße also offers good prospects for future growth, possible extensions and new workplaces.

To the guests invited to the laying of the foundation stone, the State Minister of Saxony for Science and Art, Dr Eva-Maria Stange, then also underlined the importance which Fraunhofer in general, and this construction project in particular, have for the Free State. “Saxony has developed into an outstanding national and international science location, which the successful transfer of knowledge between research and the economy that Fraunhofer stands for is also characteristic of. In this respect, the work of Fraunhofer IIS/EAS on leading-edge microelectronics or on the future challenges of networked production fits perfectly into the research portfolio. We are supporting this project to give new ideas and developments room to blossom.”

The Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Thomas Rachel, Member of the German Parliament, stressed that the EAS Division of the institute is not just considerably expanding its measuring and experimentation capabilities, but also its technical facilities with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. As part of the “Research Fab Microelectronics Germany”, EAS will receive around nine million euros by the year 2020. “With the Germany-wide program for the future, research capacities in microelectronics are for the first time being networked, bundled and extended all across the country. We are investing in very high-performance, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and equipment and are breaking new ground in terms of collaboration across institutes. The researchers at EAS are thus achieving new quality and visibility for application-oriented microelectronics research. That strengthens Europe’s most important microelectronics location, Dresden, and thus the key industry for German and European technological supremacy in the age of digitization.”

The President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Professor Reimund Neugebauer, further emphasized the anchoring of the institute’s EAS Division at the Fraunhofer IIS within the research organization. “Since 1992, we have had a presence in Dresden through numerous fields of technology and have contributed to building the current innovation potential of the State of Saxony. Right from the start, EAS was part of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Since then, the Division has been constantly growing and is now firmly integrated into outstanding Fraunhofer initiatives. One example of this is the Dresden High-Performance Center MicroNano, where Fraunhofer, in association with the regional universities, has created a powerful network to research into the further development of micro and nanoelectronics.”

The Head of the Fraunhofer Institute IIS, Professor Albert Heuberger, and the Head of the EAS Division, Dr Peter Schneider, were agreed that the construction of the new institute building is an important milestone in terms of undertaking many more successful projects and achieving developments. They directed their thanks above all to those who have made the new building possible and the various project teams who have been working on the implementation of the construction project for three years. There is a sum of around 25 million euros available for investment in the execution of the new Fraunhofer IIS/EAS institute building. The Federal Government and the Free State of Saxony are each providing around 20 percent of this and around 60 percent is coming from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).