Dresden, July 14, 2015 – German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel visited Infineon Technologies Dresden GmbH today as part of her tour through the Dresden
microelectronics cluster. She was accompanied by the Federal Minister of Education and Research Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka and the Prime Minster of Saxony Stanislaw Tillich. Together with Dr. Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG, they discussed the political framework for a competitive development and production in Germany.
Reinhard Ploss stressed: “Our investments in research, development, and production guarantees our competitive position and, with that, our success for tomorrow. The constant innovation success and growth of Infineon’s Dresden site demonstrably proves it. The integration of Infineon into Silicon Saxony and the conducive political conditions here are very helpful,” said Ploss.
Infineon runs its largest and most modern manufacturing and technology development center in Dresden with roughly 2,000 employees. The Chancellor was given a view into a real up and running Industrial 4.0 production via a live broadcast into the factory. This allowed her to exchange ideas directly with the company’s employees. The visit was rounded off by a demonstration in the Analysis and Characterization Laboratory, in which the chip structures can be examined via transmission electron microscope down to the atomic layer level.
In the past five years, Infineon has invested around €600 million in Dresden. On the one hand, the funds were allocated to the manufacturing of 200mm silicon wafers. Today, that production is the most highly automated 200mm production anywhere in the world. And on the other, Infineon is currently building the world’s first high-volume production of power semiconductors on 300mm thin wafers in Dresden. The semiconductor manufacturer is also planning on investing several hundred million euros in the coming years.
