Infrastructures for education, research and industry in microelectronics

Infrastructures to provide access to custom integrated hardware manufacturing facilities are important because they allow students and researchers to access professional facilities at a reasonable cost, and they allow companies to access small volume production, otherwise difficult to obtain directly from manufacturers. This paper is reviewing the most recent developments at CMP like the introduction of a CMOS 45 nm process, and the cooperation between the major infrastructures services available worldwide.