German chip manufacturer Infineon has officially opened a new €1.6 billion chip factory in Austria, marking one of the single largest semiconductor investments in Europe.
Infineon's Villach chip plant. Credit: Infineon
Infineon's Villach plant will be used in the production of 300mm wide chip wafers. Credit: Infineon
The plant, which is set to specialise in power electronics by manufacturing 300mm thin wafers, was revealed in 2018, well before the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Infineon has been vocal in the past about how automakers should overhaul supply chains to meet with the shortage.
Read more: Automakers may have to overhaul supply chains to address chip shortage
Located in Villach, the site's opening was overseen by the group's CEO Reinhard Ploss, Infineon Austria's CEO, Sabine Herlitschka, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.
The site was announced in 2018 and is set to produce power-saving chips for use in electric vehicles, data centres and for renewable generation through wind and solar energy.
“The new fab is a milestone for Infineon and its opening is very good news for our customers,” Ploss said.
He added: “The timing to create new capacity in Europe could not be better, given growing global demand for power semiconductors. The last few months have clearly shown how essential microelectronics are in virtually every area of life.
“Given the accelerated pace of digitalisation and electrification, we expect demand for power semiconductors to continue to grow in the coming years.”
Originally scheduled for a three-year construction period, the plant was completed three months ahead of schedule and went gold in August.
At full capacity, the plant is expected to net €2 billion in profits per year and create 400 jobs, according to the Austrian Chancellor.
“The new chip factory is an economic and technological lighthouse project for all of Austria,” Kurz added. “We in the Federal government want to continue to invest massively in digitisation in order to position ourselves in the best possible way in global competition.”
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As part of efforts in energy saving, during the building of the plant, Infineon looked into ways to improve its energy balance sheet.
80% of the site’s heating requirements will be covered by recycling waste heat of cooling systems and around 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be saved each year.
Europe is currently in the grip of an energy crisis, and so these saving measures could stand to significantly increase the company's bottom line over the next few months.
In addition, the use of exhaust air purification systems will cut direct emissions to virtually zero.
The site will also produce its own green hydrogen from the beginning of 2022. Any hydrogen produced is set to be reused in the transport of the chips, effectively eliminating carbon emissions across a large part of the value chain.
With 60,000 m² of gross floor space at the factory, production is set to be slowly ramped up over the next four to five years.
Read more: Semiconductor market might reach overcapacity by 2023, IDC suggests
This is Infineon's second operational plant for the creation of 300mm wafers, according to the group's COO Jochen Hanebeck, with its first being located in Dresden, where the technology for these types of chips was created over a decade ago.
He claims both sites are built on the same standards for production and digitalisation, which will allegedly allow the company to "control both sites as if they were a single factory" while working to increase productivity and flexibility for customers.
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