Infineon Technologies AG (Germany) reported plans to restructure its chip manufacturing within the manufacturing cluster Perlach, Regensburg and Villach in Germany. Production from Munich Perlach will largely be transferred to Regensburg and to a lesser extent to Villach. Manufacturing at Munich Perlach will be phased out by early 2007. Currently there are about 800 employees in Munich Perlach.
Infineon said the reason for this move is the structure of the 20-year-old plant in Munich Perlach. Founded as a research facility, the plant is currently focused on high-frequency products. However, the function of these products is increasingly being integrated into the fine-structure CMOS-chips, which cannot be manufactured in Perlach. Further, Munich Perlach only uses 150 mm silicon wafers for its manufacturing, which no longer meets technical or economic standards.
With the transfer of the remaining technologies to Regensburg and Villach, the manufacturing will largely be shifted to 200 mm. Infineon expects the transfer and phase-out of the plant in Munich Perlach will take two years.
