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Infineon Officially Opens First Asia-Based Front-End Fab

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Infineon Technologies has announced the opening of its first Asia-based front-end power fab located in Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Malaysia

At the ceremony, the Honourable Dato' Seri Rafidah Aziz, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, gave one of the opening speeches and together with Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, President and CEO of Infineon, officially opened the new power fab. Infineon invests approximately US $1 billion (equal to approximately 3.8 billion Malaysian Ringgit) in the Kulim power fab.

At full capacity, the fab will employ about 1,700 people. Maximum capacity will be about 100,000 wafer starts per month using wafer discs with a diameter of 200 mm (8 inch). The new facility will produce power and logic chips used in industrial and automotive power applications.


"Our new fab in Kulim is a strategic investment into our future and an opportunity to address the world's growing demand for more efficient power controls in industrial, computing and household appliances by enabling variable speed-controlled electric motors with higher performance," said Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, President and CEO of Infineon. "This new fab is an important step in continuing our successful business with chips for automotive and industrial power applications."


With global energy demand continuing to rise and natural resources depleting, power semiconductors make a major contribution to address the increasing need for energy savings. Infineon has a strong position in power applications within industrial and automotive segments.

According to market research firm IMS Research, Infineon has been the global market leader for power semiconductors for three consecutive years, holding 9.3 percent of the US $11.35 billion market by revenue in 2005.


The ground-breaking for the new plant occurred in February 2005. The production site was built in an exceptionally short time of only twelve months with equipment-ready status in February 2006. After ready-for-process status in April 2006, Infineon began production ramp-up in August 2006.


Complementing Infineon's existing power semiconductor production sites in Europe, the Kulim plant is part of Infineon's Power fab network, which includes development and production facilities in Villach (Austria) and Regensburg (Germany).


The core activity of the Kulim fab is to produce power semiconductors which enable efficient energy management, such as CoolMOS and IGBT chips for industrial applications and SMART-Power chips for use in cars. CoolMOS semiconductors allow for completely new system approaches for power supplies, such as in servers, PCs and laptops and for battery chargers in mobile phones or PDAs. Power supply designs with CoolMOS chips continue to shrink in weight and size. Infineon's IGBT chips enable new concepts of drives in household applications, such as refrigerators, air conditioning systems and industrial applications.

Due to their low inner resistance and switching behavior, electrical energy can be utilized more efficiently with less waste heat. For car applications, Infineon's automotive SMART-Power switches increase fuel efficiency, safety and convenience. They are applied in engine control, ABS and airbag applications as well as in lighting control, electrical window lift, seat adjustment and door locks.

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