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TITLE: Czech Center of Excellence for Microelectronics
The Czech Republic has created a Center of Excellence for
Microelectronics which will supply top engineering talent from
Central and Eastern Europe and Russia to leading and emerging
chip companies worldwide.
The first-of-its-kind Center of Excellence has established a
specialized network throughout Central and Eastern Europe and
Russia of university teams, incubators, training programs and
other infrastructure. The Brno-based Center supports small- and
medium-sized technology companies worldwide by serving as a
comprehensive resource for cost-effective, highly skilled
engineering specialists.
ChipInvest began as a partnership between the Czech Business
Development Agency and Cadence in 2005 to support research-and-
development of new chip technologies, emerging technology
companies, and advanced training in integrated circuit design.
"Because we are leveraging pre-existing infrastructure and assets
in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, we are able to bring
together a critical mass of expertise and infrastructure in a
very short time period," said Radomil Novak, Director, U.S.
Operations-West and Adviser to the CEO, CzechInvest. "Our Center
of Excellence goes beyond typical incubators by providing a
formal network for training and talent-gathering for the
international microelectronics industry. It's like placing a
magnet in an electric field. We are directing knowledge-flow to
one place -- the Czech Republic. As a result, multinational
organizations and small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide
now have an unparalleled resource."
ChipInvest is headquartered at the renowned Brno University of
Technology campus in the Czech Republic. European Union- and
Czech-based national funding subsidizes key educational programs
that provide additional training for engineers working in
microelectronics design.
Through the three Czech-based incubators, entrepreneurs also can
access venture capital funding earmarked for emergent technology
companies.
SoftInvest, a partnership between the Czech branch of software
company Microsoft and CzechInvest, will be working
collaboratively with ChipInvest in order to create an innovation
center focused on embedded systems. One of the objectives of the
center is to provide a partner program in cooperation with Czech
universities to support the creation of approximately 20
microelectronic-focused software start-up companies within two to
three years.
Several leading, global microelectronics companies are currently
conducting leading-edge research-and-development activities in
the Czech Republic:
-- The Czech subsidiary of Motorola Freescale specializes in the
development of both software and hardware system engineering at its
worldwide Center of Excellence;
-- S3 designs specialized microchips for telecom hardware manufacturers;
-- AMI Semiconductor designs state-of-the-art integrated, mixed-signal
products and structured digital products for the automotive, medical and
industrial sectors;
-- SCG Czech Design Centre, branch of ON Semiconductor, develops analogue
and mixed mode ICs for a range of industry sectors;
-- ST Microelectronics, design center, comprised of 240 engineers,
develops key applications for its product lines worldwide;
-- Flextronics Design Center provides design and engineering solutions
that are combined with core electronics manufacturing and logistics
services;
-- Cadence supports the development of key technologies at two Czech
Universities by using electronic design automation (EDA) laboratories.
According to a 2005 report by the Organization of Economic Co-
Operation and Development, globalization drives offshoring of
research and development by multinationals. OECD's Science,
Technology and Industry Scoreboard says 40 percent of
multinational investments in the Czech Republic are research-
and-development related.
CzechInvest, the Investment and Business Development Agency, is
an agency of the Ministry of Industry & Trade of the Czech
Republic whose services and development programs contribute to
attracting foreign investment and developing Czech companies. The
agency is the sole organization that may submit applications for
investment incentives to governing bodies, manage the agenda with
related incentives, and manage the development of the entire
system of investment support in the Czech Republic. CzechInvest
also promotes the country abroad and acts as an intermediary
between the European Union and small and medium-sized enterprises
in implementing EU structural funds in the Czech Republic. All
CzechInvest's services are free of charge.
For more information, access: CzechInvest
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FILENUMBER: 1266
BEGIN_KEYWORDS
Czech Microelectronics
END_KEYWORDS
DATE: June 2006
TITLE: Czech Center of Excellence for Microelectronics
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