PRESS RELEASE: New Research Chip from Dresden for Secure Digital Systems
Dresden, 28 April 2026 – The Barkhausen Institut (BI) has developed Masur25, a digital research chip that allows scientists to experimentally test new technologies for secure and trustworthy digital systems.
Developing new digital microchips often involves significant hurdles. Manufacturing custom chips is complex and expensive, making it difficult for many research institutions to pursue their own designs. A new research chip from Dresden aims to help overcome these hurdles.
“If we want digital systems to be secure and technologically independent, we must also be able to develop the underlying chips ourselves,” says Prof. Dr. Gerhard Fettweis, founding director and Scientific Director of the Barkhausen Institut. “Our research result, the Masur25 chip, allows external partner institutions to integrate and test their own modules without having to design and manufacture an entire chip themselves. This significantly shortens development cycles and reduces costs. In this way, we substantially lower the entry barriers to chip design for our partners.”
The chip was developed entirely at the Barkhausen Institut in Dresden – from the initial concept and physical design to laboratory testing. The team is already working on the next development stage. The successor chip, Masur26, is currently in the so-called tape-out phase, the step in which the final design data are transferred to the semiconductor foundry for fabrication. As with Masur25, the team successfully used the cloud-based makeChip development environment provided by the Dresden company Racyics GmbH.
Dresden has long been one of Europe’s most important hubs for microelectronics. Within the Silicon Saxony network, research institutions and companies collaborate on new semiconductor technologies. With its research chips, the Barkhausen Institut creates a unique bridge between academic research and the practical development of modern chip architectures.
Photos available for download: Barkhausen-Institut_Forschungschip-Masur25
Press Contact
Annika Höritz
PR Manager
Email: annika.hoeritz@barkhauseninstitut.org
About the Barkhausen Institut
The Barkhausen Institut (BI) is an internationally recognized research institute conducting cutting-edge research on the trustworthiness of networked electronic systems. Working in an interdisciplinary and international environment, the institute is pursuing the goal of building a reliable foundation for the Internet of the future and enabling trust in digital technologies, in particular by designing trustworthy platform chips.