Infineon Technologies Dresden has purchased real estate and manufacturing facilities from the insolvency administrator managing the assets of Qimonda for a total sum of €100.6 million. The company will not produce memory on the 300mm fab, which is located right near Infineon's own facilities, but will make power semiconductors, a growing product category.

With this purchase Infineon secures 300mm manufacturing equipment that forms an important basis for potential volume production of 300mm power semiconductors. Infineon Technologies AG is currently working on a development project to assess the use of 300mm wafers for manufacturing power semiconductors on thin wafer technology. For this purpose a pilot line is set-up at the company’s site in Villach, Austria. Some of the machinery now acquired will be used for completion of the pilot line in Villach. Infineon will decide about the start and the location of a 300mm volume production during the current fiscal year.

Power semiconductors are used, for example, in electric vehicles, wind and solar systems, all types of motors and generators, PCs and servers, household appliances, flat-screen TVs and game consoles, and are instrumental in significantly reducing the energy consumption of electronic devices.

The real estate of Qimonda's borders directly on the Infineon premises in Dresden, Germany. The purchase of real estate covers cleanroom and manufacturing facilities as well as 300mm manufacturing equipment of the former Qimonda Dresden and forms part of the company’s strategic capacity expansion.

The insolvency administrator had kept the cleanroom facilities operational after the insolvency proceedings were opened. Infineon now takes over the full remaining items of property and manufacturing facilities.

Ironically, Infineon AG itself is a semiconductor spin-off from Siemens, whereas Qimonda (which went bankrupt in 2009) was a DRAM spin-off from Infineon.

Based on this transaction and the further expansion of capacity due to continued strong order intake and a healthy level of orders on hand, Infineon is increasing the capital expenditure budget for the 2011 fiscal year from approximately €700 million to €850 million. In the 2010 fiscal year, the volume of capital expenditure was €325 million. The company defines capital expenditures as expenditures in property, plant and equipment, and intangible assets including capitalized research and development costs.

Tags: Infineon, Qimonda, Semiconductor, Business, DRAM