Infineon revives former Qimonda production line for power semiconductors
The 300mm thin wafer production technology gives Infineon a significant productivity edge over the currently prevailing 200mm technology. This additional productivity correlates to the wafer size and is comparable to the productivity gain achieved in the production of logic chips through the change to 300mm wafers. The thin wafer technology with wafer thicknesses down to 200microns, in some cases even to 40 microns, is a proprietary technology developed by Infineon. It is applied only to power semiconductors and enables the company to design and build power transistors with extraordinarily low RDSon, explained Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss. This, in turn, would enable electronic device designers to significantly improve the power efficiency of their products.
Anticipating a significant market recovery in the second half of the year, Infineon is now about to increase its production capacity. Currently, the company manufactures power semiconductors in Villach (Austria) and Kulim (Malaysia). Beginning in April, the company now will gradually add manufacturing capacities by returning a 300mm production line to service in Dresden. This production line formerly was owned and operated by memory chip maker Qimonda which filed for insolvency a couple of years ago. Past year, Infineon bought the facility back and put into service again as a highly automated production line. The move will boost the company’s production capacity for power semiconductors to 40.000 waferstarts per week (in 200mm equivalents).
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