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The design of the millimeter wave interferometer started in June 1979, in the year of the
foundation of IRAM, the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique. The construction of
the first antenna was completed in June 1987, and three years later an interferometer
consisting of three antennas was opened to guest observers. First fringes at 230GHz were
obtained in April 1995, the five antenna configuration of the interferometer was attained
one year later, and the six antenna correlator installed end summer 2000. Work is in
progress for the construction of the sixth antenna and is foreseen to extend the
north-south track. Starting with the commissioning period in 1990 up to the end of 1999,
the Plateau de Bure interferometer was able to carry out more than 500 different projects
which involved more than 200 investigators from all around the world.
Anne Dutrey