The European Commission (EC) has awarded a grant of €233m to the nanotechnology joint venture between Infineon Technologies, AMD and the German Fraunhofer Institute that opened in Dresden last year.

The Centre for Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT) is part of Dresden’s €700m effort to establish itself as the “third European centre of advanced research in nanoelectronics”, after LETI in France and IMEC in Belgium.

The EC assistance includes €48m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for plant and equipment for the initial phase of the CNT.

The facility provides 800m² of cleanroom space on Infineon’s research and manufacturing site in Dresden.

Opened in June of last year, the centre aims to develop silicon geometries below 50nm. The CNT has been compared to IMEC in Belgian and LETI in France.

www.fraunhofer.de