  VIRUS is a planned integral-field instrument for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
(HET). In order to achieve a large field-of-view and high grasp at reasonable
costs, the approach is to replicate integral-field units (IFU) and medium sized
spectrographs many times. The Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP) contributes
to VIRUS with the development and testing of the IFU prototype. This paper
describes the optomechanical design and the manufacture of the fiber-based IFU
subsystem. The initial VIRUS development aims to produce a prototype and to
measure its performance. Additionally, techniques will be investigated to allow
industrial replication of the highly specific fiber-bundle layout. This will be
necessary if this technique is to be applied to the next generation of even
larger astronomical instrumentation.
