Infineon Plans Largest IC Design Center in China
By Richard Wilson -- Electronics Weekly, 1/15/2004
The design center, which could have as many as 1,000 staff by 2007, will work on projects for all of the company's business groups, but an initial focus will be on developing products for communications, automotive and industrial electronics.
China is a dynamic market full of business opportunities and excellent R&D talents. We believe that our Xi'an IC design center will be one of the company's major driving forces for our future technology development,” said Werner Mohr, senior VP for the logic business at Infineon Technologies.
The company already has production and R&D activities in China and last year it said there were plans to invest more than $1.2 billion in China within the next years.
Earlier this week Infineon saw a loosening of its financial ties to Siemens when its German parent reduced its shareholding in the company from 40 percent to 19 percent. This is in-line with Siemens long term plans for its former semiconductor business.
In China Infineon is also co-operating with two universities in Xi'an. Together with Xidian University the company will collaborate to develop a National IC Talent Incubation Base.
A year ago STMicroelectronics announced the setting up of a joint venture ASIC research center with a graduate school of Beijing’s Tsinghua University based in Shenzhen, Southern China. And further out, ST said it was looking to China for more than design. The company's CEO, Pasquale Pistorio, told Electronics Weekly: "By 2005 we will have a working fab in China -- the next fab will be done in China, once existing capacity is saturated."
Electronics Weekly is the London-based sister publication of Electronic News. |
