Germany to fund the Semiconductor industry with 400 milion Euro

"Every second chip made in Europe comes from Saxony!"

Happy days in Dresden, Silicon Saxony and Germany today - Yesterday Globalfoundries announced that they are investing in Fab 1 in Dresden to ramp 22 nm FD-SOI and today Angela Merkel and Johanna Wanka comes for a visit to Dresden and promises 400 million Euro support package until 2020 for the semiconductor industry!

"Um Innovationen in der Halbleiterindustrie auch künftig voranzutreiben, erarbeitet das Bundesforschungsministerium bis Ende des Jahres zusammen mit weiteren Ressorts ein neues Rahmenprogramm. Das Programm soll mit einem Volumen von 400 Millionen Euro bis 2020 ausgestattet werden. Das hat Bundesforschungsministerin Wanka bei ihrem Besuch in Dresden angekündigt. " - http://www.bmbf.de/de/28961.php

Chancellor Angela Merkel entering the helicopter in Berlin to fly 200 km south to Dresden. (Twitter, BMBF)

Rutger Wijburg (VP and General Manager Fab1, Dresden) explains factory physics for Sanjay Jha (CEO Globalfoundries) Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ministerpräsident Stanislaw Tillich and Bundesforschungsministerin Johanna Wanka using a model Globalfoundries Fab 1 in Dresden. (Photo: Heiko Weckbrodt)

More details for those of you reading German can be found in the excellent coverage by Heiko Weckbrodt :

Bund sagt 400 Millionen € für Mikroelektronik zu

Kanzlerin Merkel debattiert in Dresden Mikroelektronik-Strategie

MDR Sachsen Video in German:

Overview
http://www.mdr.de/sachsenspiegel/video284012.html

Silicon Saxony
http://www.mdr.de/sachsenspiegel/video284020.html

Globalfoundries
http://www.mdr.de/sachsenspiegel/video283788.html

Later Frau Bundeskanzlerin Dr Merkel also stopped by Fraunhofer to meet with The Fraunhofer President Prof. Dr. Reimund Neugebauer.

Angela Merkel also visited Infineon’s Dresden 300 and 200 mm fabs today and discussed the political framework for a competitive development and production in Germany with CEO Reinhard Ploss. - See more at: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/merkel-visits-infineon-dresden-fab-2015-07/#sthash.XHTLv12Y.dpuf

 

Yesterday, flanked by two clean room engineers posing with 300 mm device wafers the Globalfoundries Managers Gregg Bartlett, Sanjay Jha (CEO) und Rutger Wijburg (VP and General Manager Fab1, Dresden) announce that Globalfoundries will invest $250 million for 22nm FD-SOI production in Fab 1 Dresden, Germany. From the press conference in Dresden (photo by Heiko Weckbrodt, www.computer-oiger.de)