August 14, 2025. The Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT) of the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Since its foundation in 2005, it has developed into a mainstay of applied semiconductor research in Germany and Europe. With its unique research clean room and 300 mm wafer industry standard equipment, the CNT is unique in Germany and a key driver of innovation for the microelectronics industry.
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The Fraunhofer IPMS is celebrating its anniversary today with a ceremony. Minister President Michael Kretschmer acknowledges the importance of the CNT: “With its excellent work, the CNT makes a decisive contribution to the international competitiveness of Silicon Saxony as a leading microelectronics location in Germany and Europe. The current situation in particular shows how important technological sovereignty and independent supply chains are in Europe. Our common goal must be to keep Germany and Europe at the forefront of technology. The CNT will continue to play a central role in this in the coming years: with bright minds, bold ideas and strong partners at its side.”
Manfred Horstmann, General Manager and Senior Vice President at GlobalFoundries Dresden, the CNT’s largest industrial partner, explains: “The CNT is a strategic research partner for us. The proximity to an industry-standard 300 mm research clean room enables fast innovation cycles and targeted technology development – a real locational advantage for the entire Dresden microelectronics cluster.”
The success story of the CNT began in 2005 as a public-private partnership between Fraunhofer, Infineon and AMD. Infineon operated the world’s first 300 mm plant in Dresden – at that time still under the umbrella of its parent company SIEMENS – and was thus a pioneer in global semiconductor production. The CNT worked exclusively for the two industrial partners and enabled a direct link between cutting-edge research and industrial application from the very beginning, thus facilitating rapid innovations in production.
In the wake of the financial crisis in 2009, the CNT lost one of its two industrial partners. This also marked the end of exclusive research in the public-private partnership. The CNT opened up to research collaborations with new national and international customers based on the Fraunhofer model. In 2013, the CNT was then integrated into the Fraunhofer IPMS as a business unit. Today, the CNT works on projects with over 100 industrial partners, including BASF, Sony, X-FAB and GlobalFoundries. And with the EMMA project, in which the CNT developed innovative materials, processes and components for the energy-saving technology FDX together with GlobalFoundries, the CNT was able to acquire the largest industrial contract in the history of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
With investments of around 140 million euros in state-of-the-art facilities, the CNT is now Germany’s most important 300 mm research facility on an industrial scale. Together with the Fraunhofer IZM-ASSID, whose focus is on packaging and system integration technologies, the institutes cover the entire value chain in 300 mm microelectronics and thus create the conditions for high-tech research for future technologies in the state of Saxony.
A decisive milestone in recent years was the successful relocation of the CNT from the Infineon site to the former Plastic Logic fab. Thanks to the support of the Free State of Saxony, the BMFTR and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, it was possible to create a new, efficient site with the largest research clean room in Germany.
The new capacities enable completely new subject areas to be developed alongside traditional semiconductor research: The CNT is now actively involved in pioneering areas such as quantum computing, neuromorphic computing and AI hardware. The new location also offers development opportunities for pioneering technologies such as chiplet integration in 2.5D and 3D, which the CNT is researching within the APECS pilot line.
As part of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) and the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics, the CNT works closely with Saxon and European partners. There is a close partnership with imec (Leuven) and CEA-LETI (Grenoble) to bundle European research expertise. Projects such as “PREVAIL” to create a European “Testing and Experimentation Facility (TEF) for Edge AI” are an expression of this cross-border cooperation.
“The role of the CNT as an industry-oriented research partner is and remains essential – for Saxony, Germany and Europe. The CNT is exemplary for the combination of cutting-edge research, industrial relevance and European cooperation. At a time of growing geopolitical challenges, it is precisely this combination that is the key to technological sovereignty,” says Prof. Dr. Harald Schenk, Institute Director of Fraunhofer IPMS.
Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, adds: “For twenty years, the Fraunhofer IMPS has been driving forward application-oriented research on 300 mm wafers in the Center Nanoelectronic Technologies CNT – and thus making an important contribution to the competitiveness and future viability of microchip manufacturers, suppliers, device manufacturers and, last but not least, our R & D partners. The 300 mm industry standard is crucial for the more efficient production of chips and thus also for the faster transfer of research results to industry. With its wide range of technology developments and services, the CNT plays a central role as an innovation driver for the German semiconductor industry. Congratulations on your anniversary!”
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Photo: IPMS
