14 DAY TRIAL // Infineon has just announced that the company has produced the first chips using a 300-millimeter thin wafer for power semiconductors at the Villach site in Austria, making it the first company in the world to succeed in taking this step.
According to the German semiconductor maker, the chips produced on a 300-millimeter thin wafer exhibit the same behavior as the power semiconductors made on 200-millimeter wafers, which has been confirmed by tests using MOSFETs for High Voltage applications.
Infineon had embarked on setting up a power semiconductor pilot line for 300-millimeter wafer and thin wafer technology in Villach, Austria, in October 2010 and in that short time it managed to build a team comprised out of 50 engineers and physicists from various fields.
The high-voltage power transistors manufactured using these wafers are used to raise energy efficiency in devices such as PC power supplies, servers, solar power inverters, lighting and telecommunications systems.
In additions, these sort of energy-saving chips are also indispensable in consumer electronics devices like flat-screen TVs and games consoles, where they allow savings of up to 25 percent of global power consumption.
“Our engineers’ achievement marks a quantum leap in production technology,” says Dr. Reinhard Ploss, Operations, Research & Development and Labor Director of Infineon Technologies AG.
“Innovation lays the foundation for profitable growth. Innovation secures our edge over the competition,” concluded the company's rep.
As part of its investment plans, Infineon announced that at the end of July it will set up Dresden as the high volume production site for its Power 300 technology.
Until 2014, Infineon Technologies Dresden plans to invest around Euro 250 million for this purpose and intends to create approximately 250 new jobs in Dresden.