Infineon Expands its Memory Development Center in Dresden - Creating 120 New Jobs
DRESDEN, Germany—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Feb. 6, 2004—
Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) will expand the
Memory Development Center at its Dresden reference location with the
aim of further strengthening and extending the central role of the
site in the development of process technology, particularly for DRAM
and flash products. Toward that end, the company will erect a new
building on the premises of its Dresden plant, with a development
cleanroom at its center. Investments totaling around Euro 120 million
will be spent on the project over the next two years. Infineon
currently expects to take on about 120 new hires for the Development
Center expansion in the current fiscal year.
The Memory Development Center's extra capacity will be housed in a
new building complex to be erected immediately next to Infineon's
existing semiconductor fab by early 2005. Construction is scheduled to
start in the middle of this year. When completed, the new complex will
provide around 2,300 m(2) of additional cleanroom space. Areas of
suitable size will also be allocated to accommodate the technical
infrastructure for the cleanroom as well as office space. The new
adjunct to the Development Center will focus on the development of
innovative memory concepts and fabrication processes on 300mm wafers
for the manufacture of future memory generations. Infineon's aim is to
extend its technology and cost leadership in the global race to
deliver the coming semiconductor generations.
"Dresden is the prime example of Infineon's consistent record of
taking on new employees and creating high-quality production jobs in
Germany. Over the last year we have also concentrated the technology
development activities of the Memory Products Group in the Memory
Development Center," said Dr. Harald Eggers, Senior Vice President and
General Manager of the Memory Products Group at Infineon Technologies.
"By expanding the Development Center we are taking another step
forward and creating the space we need to develop the next-but-one
technology generations at 70 nanometers and below, which will enable
us to secure our leading competitive position in this sector."
Technical background to production processes
During the fabrication of a memory chip, the silicon wafers pass
through approx. 400 to 500 discrete manufacturing stages. A new
technology is rolled out into production every 12 to 15 months,
permitting the manufacture of smaller feature sizes and hence a higher
number of transistors and memory cells per wafer. This development
cycle is often referred to as Moore's law, which states that the
transistor density per square centimeter of silicon area doubles every
two years. Producing smaller geometries while maintaining virtually
identical electrical characteristics imposes huge demands on the
development of the entire process sequence as well as on the
individual process steps. Development centers come up with solutions
to arising challenges and introduce these solutions into the
production environment.
About Infineon Technologies Dresden
Infineon Technologies Dresden is a fabrication and development
facility of Infineon Technologies AG, producing memory chips and
high-grade logic devices using complex manufacturing technology based
on 200mm and 300mm silicon wafers. Volume production and technology
development on 300mm-diameter wafers began as long ago as in 2000.
This has resulted in cost savings of up to 30 percent compared to chip
production based on 200mm wafers. Originally planned to accommodate a
1,450-strong workforce at full capacity, the Dresden location today
employs 5,400 people. By the end of fiscal 2004 this number is
expected to increase to 5,800. Within the framework of Infineon's
international production operations, the Dresden plant is the
reference facility in the company's DRAM "fab cluster" - a distributed
manufacturing network with locations in Europe, Asia and the USA.
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG, based in Munich, Germany, offers
semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial
sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure
mobile solutions and memory products. In fiscal year 2003 (ending
September), the company achieved sales of Euro 6.15 billion with about
32,300 employees world-wide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of
the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange
(ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at
www.infineon.com.
This news release and a press photo are available online at
http://www.infineon.com/news/.
General video material can be downloaded from
www.thenewsmarket.com.
Contact:
Infineon Technologies AG
Worldwide Headquarters
Ralph Heinrich
Phone/Fax: +49 89 234 22404/28482
ralph.heinrich@infineon.com
or
U.S.A.
Christoph Liedtke
Phone/Fax: +1 408 501 6790/2424
christoph.liedtke@infineon.com
or
Asia
Kaye Lim
Phone/Fax: +65 6840 0689/0073
kaye.lim@infineon.com
or
Japan
Hirotaka Shiroguchi
Phone/Fax: +81 3 5449 6795/6401
hirotaka.shiroguchi@infineon.com
or
Investor Relations
EU/APAC +49 89 234 26655
USA/CAN +1 408 501 6800
investor.relations@infineon.com
