Infineon Technologies AG has a number of factories for the production of chips or other plants in Malaysia, home Germany (Dresden), Austria or Wuxi in China. Now it is expanding its operations with a brand new factory, which will produce chips on 300 mm wafers, three months before the originally set date. The company is in such a hurry, but it’s really not surprising, because thanks to the earlier launch, Infineon will also be able to benefit sooner from the current market situation, which will not be there forever.
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Sabine Herlitschka (Infineon Austria CEO), Reinhard Ploss (Infineon CEO) a Jochen Hanebeck (Infineon COO)
Infineon’s new plant cost 1.6 billion euros, so it will no longer be a state-of-the-art gigafab. In fact, it will not even produce logic chips.
It occupies a total area of about 60 thousand square meters and the company expects that the factory will generate revenue of about 2 billion euros per year. At the same time, it is located in Austria (Villach), where Infineon already has its background and is also concentrating its development here, where chips using new materials such as SiC or GaN are also involved.
Interestingly, according to a press release, the new factory is to produce ultra-thin 300mm wafers with a thickness of only 40 micrometers. And it was in the research facilities in Villach that the process of manufacturing power supply components (eg MOSFETs) on thin wafers was developed 10 years ago. The main advantage is the reduction of expenses, while Infineon has already started using this technology in Dresden, Germany.
The products manufactured at Infineon’s new plant, which is set to gradually reach full capacity over the next five years, will be used to power electronics in cars, data centers and systems connected to renewable sources (wind and solar energy).
Unfortunately, Infineon will not produce logic chips in its new factory, which are desperately lacking in the automotive industry as well (this company also manufactures microcontrollers for it). But also the basic components, such as just needed MOSFETy, there is currently a shortage, so this factory will also contribute to its gradual demolition, and its products will also go to automotive.
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