Infineon to open Porto
Work on expanding the facility started autumn 2003 and full capacity will be reached by mid-2006. It is planned to create about 500 new jobs in the process, increasing the workforce in Porto to 1500.
The new module is to be formally opened on June 16, 2004, in the presence of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. The first products are already rolling off the production line. Volume production began with 256Mbit devices in BGA packages.
Infineon says that it needs the facility because of steadily expanding front-end capacities, for example with the ramp-up of its 300mm fab in Dresden, Germany, and with the planned start up of 300mm production in Richmond, USA. Most of the wafers arriving for further processing at the plant come from Dresden and Richmond.
Up to 600mn chips per year are planned as the maximum capacity when the new module is completed. This represents more than double the capacity as a result of the expansion. The first module has around 5000m2 of clean room area and the second about 7000m2.
Dr Michael Majerus, chief financial officer of the Memory Products group, reports: "When we have reached full capacity in Porto, about 30-40% of our global memory chip production will be assembled and tested here."
The memory chip assembly and test plant was founded in 1996. Initial investment in the first module amounted to EUR330mn of which EUR140mn was used to modernise the plant between mid-2000 and mid-2003. Infineon has invested a total of EUR560mn at the Porto location.
