BERLIN — After eight months of work, ChipInvest, the Czech Republic’s chip design venture based at Brno University of Technology, has developed its first product, a mixed-signal IC-based detector in the sphere of medical diagnostics.

Essentially a wireless transceiver that offers early detection of some blood and heart diseases, ChipInvest described it as a "non-invasive diagnostic microsystem" designed for "early-stage detection of angiology and cardiology diseases."

"We have a working prototype and expect clinical testing in January," said Tomas Bohrn, ChipInvest’s chairman.

Bohrn said the project began in April and the prototype was developed in early December. A physician worked closely with the engineers in the development process to ensure medical requirements were met.

According to Bohrn, the product already has customers, although he said he would not disclose details of the companies and investors involved until the product’s expected market introduction in March 2008.

ChipInvest, launched in 2006, is part of the Czech Republic’s effort to create an indigenous IC design base in Central Europe. ST Microelectronics, Freescale Semiconductor, AMI Semiconductor and ON Semiconductor are among the multinationals with IC design operations in the country.

The effort was set up as a partnership between CzechInvest, the state investment promotion unit, and Cadence Design Systems. Cadence has no financial stake, but supplies software tools, training and links to chip manufacturers and foundries.

ChipInvest aims to go beyond the design outsourcing model and become a nexus where engineering talent, government funding, industry and venture capital converge to develop original products, Bohrn said.

He added that ChipInvest is concurrently working on products in the areas of telemetry and photovoltaic conversion. The Czech Republic has also joined the European Space Agency consortium, and ChipInvest is looking into IC design for satellite hardware.

Though the venture’s first product was developed in Brno by Czech engineers, ChipInvest’s long-term vision is to connect analog and mixed-signal engineers in Central and Eastern Europe in a virtual network as a means to encourage the formation of fabless startups.

The next steps involve linking engineers in Brno and Prague and then to a third Czech city. "We hope to expand the virtual net wider as we go forward," Bohrn said