The Masaryk University and Arizona-based semiconductor supplier ON Semiconductor Corp. announced they have opened a laboratory dedicated to academic education and to silicon technology, microelectronics research in the Czech Republic.

Both parties said the newly-constructed 120-square meter laboratory, located on the historic university campus in Brno, in the Moravia region, will serve to educate students of physics and microelectronics in a high tech clean room environment. Basic silicon R&D activities will also take place in the joint lab, and, looking ahead, the facitlity is likely to be used to support the demand for advanced technology industries, said Masaryk University and ON Semiconductor in a statement.

“This is the first clean room laboratory of its kind for students in the Czech Republic,” commented Michael Mandracchia, vice president and general manager of On Semiconductor Czech Republic and Slovakia. “Clean rooms, and the technology and equipment they house, have become a worldwide standard for companies focused on semiconductors, electronics, optics and pharmacy. Providing university students a hands-on experience in a working clean room, will better prepare them for a career in technology and nurture local expertise to support the growing technology industry in the Czech Republic.”

Masaryk University indicated that it invested about $950,000 in the construction of the laboratory. ON Semiconductor brought an additional investment of $230,000.

The joint laboratory project is part of a long-term collaboration between the university’s faculty of Condensed Matter Physics and ON Semiconductor, in the field of research of silicon as a basic element in microelectronics.