AMS-Osram plans Austrian opto fab, seeks €200 million funding

Business news | May 14, 2024

By Peter Clarke

Optoelectronics Austria Analog Interconnect & cables

AMS-Osram AG (Premstaetten, Austria) has said it has applied to European authorities for €200 million to support the construction of a wafer fab at its headquarters that will support advanced packaging of optoelectronic components.

The funding application is being made under the European Chips Act and will support total spending of €588 million (about US$630 million) in Austria on chip R&D and manufacturing over the remainder of this decade.

The company recently withdrew from expansion plans in Malaysia on the cancellation of a microLED display project by Apple (see AMS-Osram restructure hits 500 jobs, prompts fab exit).

The latest €200 million funding application would support the development and production of ‘Made in Europe’ microchips, AMS-Osram said. It is part of its ‘Re-establish the Base’ strategic initiative. Target market sectors would include medical, industrial and consumer wearable electronics.

The factory will be a frontend wafer manufacturing facility with the technological capabilities to integrate BCD, through silicon vias and optical filters, a spokesperson told eeNews Europe. The factory will produce optoelectronic sensors for medical and automotive applications. There are also plans to manufacture products for industrial and consumer goods applications. The spending would create about 250 jobs in the mid-term at its Premstaetten headquarters site, the company said.

There are plans to build an additional 1,800-square-meter cleanroom at the Premstätten site for CMOS production that will double the company’s filter capacity and increase its through-silicon-via capacity by a factor of four, AMS-Osram said.

Foundry access

AMS-Osram said that it plans to make about 20 percent of the additional production capacity available as a foundry offering to support automotive, medical and industrial applications.

“With the new factory at our headquarters, we can create more space for innovation, meet the growing needs of our customers and manufacture more products in Europe,” said Aldo Kamper, CEO of AMS-Osram, in a statement. “At the same time, our investment is a clear commitment to Premstaetten as a business location, to Styria as a high-tech location and to Austria as a location for innovation and production. From here we are driving forward digitalization in line with the European Green Deal and supporting Europe’s technological sovereignty.”

AMS-Osram is also set to receive €300 million in funding from the German government under the Europe-wide IPCEI scheme. That money is being supplied over five years to support the development of optoelectronic semiconductor technologies at the AMS-Osram plant in Regensburg, Germany (see AMS-Osram set to get €300 million IPCEI subsidy).

The company did not give a detailed timetable for the spending in Austria or when manufacturing of components would start at the facility.