The Fraunhofer Institut for Integrated Circuits has opened the second phase of its expanded facility in Erlangen–Tennenlohe, Germany. The new expansion adds some 6,411 square meters of office and laboratory space to the institute.
Since 2002, the Fraunhofer IIS has been working to bring all its Erlangen-based employees into the same campus. The expanded facility provides additional space for 175 employees and a like number of students, auxiliary staff and visiting scientists.
Facilities in the new buildings include a fully equipped audio/video recording and post-production studio and a digital cinema setup equipped with a Fraunhofer Institut for Digital Media Technology-developed Iosono sound field system. The expansion includes some 440 kilometers of network cabling and 140 kilometers of fiber-optic cabling.
“The continued development of future-oriented business fields has increased our space requirements,” said Prof. Heinz Gerhäuser, head of the institute. “Almost all employees in Erlangen are now housed under one roof and can conduct research under modern conditions.”
The cost of the development was split between the German federal government and the state government of Bavaria. Bavarian Prime Minister Günther Beckstein presided over the formal opening of the facility on July 31.
Separately, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg have formed a new research center, Audio Labs Erlangen. The facility is funded by Fraunhofer IIS license revenues from MP3 patents, which total some €60 million per year.
The facility will focus on developing new technologies for digital processing of multimedia content. Initial efforts will focus on processing music and voice signals.
