Europractice IC to expand its services into MEMS and photonic technologies

Date: 25/07/2013
imec has announced European commission to continue funding the Europractice IC services for another three years under the FP7 program. imec's partners in this program are STFC and Fraunhofer IIS.

"The EU’s continued support of the Europractice IC services speaks to the value of our efforts to help get European ASIC (application specific integrated circuits)-based products to market quickly and cost effectively,” stated Carl Das, Director of the Europractice IC service at imec. “This funding will enable us to continue to provide the best and most advanced solutions to European academia and research institutes, start-up companies and companies with small niche markets.”

Europractice IC service offers not-so-expensive prototype services for ASIC designers from universities and research centres and also small companies. imec says there are about 500 universities, 150 research centers and more than 200 European companies have access to this service.

Europractice IC service help in procuring EDA tools for researchers for training purpose and non-commercial research. Europractice IC service runs what is called multiproject wafer (MPW) for prototyping and manufacturing. Europractice IC services also supports companies in the assembly and testing phase. Over the next three years, the service will expand its offering from ASIC services to prototyping possibilities in MEMS and photonics-related technologies.