Bosch announced that it has started construction on its new wafer fab in Reutlingen, Germany. The production will be used predominantly for the company’s automotive electronics. The fab is scheduled to launch activities in 2009.
The company claims that, within the next five years, it plans to build up a capacity of around one thousand 200-mm wafers per day which equals about 1 million chips per day. For the new manufacturing line, Bosch plans to close down its existing production in nearby Reutlingen-Rommelsbach.
The company states that it will invest €600 million (about $846 million) in the production. The company states that the new line will produce ASSPs, ASICs, analog and power devices as well as MEMS, and that most of the output will be used in automotive applications such as engine management, as well as safety systems such as ESP, ABS or airbag controllers.
