The move follows a healthy surge in orders over the last twelve months. ‘Based on this transaction andthe 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 $700m to €850m,’ states the company.

The land which has been purchased borders directly on the Infineon premises (right) Dresden, Germany. The manufacturing assets include the cleanroom, manufacturing facilities and 300mm manufacturing equipment of the former Qimonda Dresden site.  The move forms part of the company’s strategic capacity expansion.

Infineon is buying the assets from Qimonda’s insolvency administrator for €100.6m, reports  David Manners. The insolvency administrator having kept the cleanroom facilities operational after the insolvency proceedings were opened and Infineon now takes over the full remaining items of property and manufacturing facilities.

The purchase secures Infineon 300mm manufacturing equipment an important basis for potential volume production of 300mm power semiconductors. The company is working on a development project to assess the use of 300mm wafers for manufacturing power semiconductors on thin wafer technology.

A pilot line is set-up at the Villach site in Austria which managed to put power semiconductors on a 300 millimeter wafer in October  will use some of the acquired machinery acquired for completion of its pilot line.

Then Infineon said Dresden would be the production site for its Power 300, and in the years up to 2014 it plans to invest roughly €250m,  creating about 250 jobs. Now however, the start and the location of a 300mm volume production will be decided by Infineon during the current fiscal year.

IP footnote
[Qimonda which had more than 4,500 patent families IP, in May settled a license agreement that allows Elpida to use Qimonda’s patents world wide. The US Bankruptcy Court which recognised Qimonda AG’s German insolvency proceedings as a foreign main proceeding under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code, has a group of licensees, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Intel Corp., Infineon Technologies AG, Micron Technology Inc., Hynix Semiconductor Inc., IBM Corp. and Nanya Technology Corp., all asserting that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court order licenses shall continue with respect to Qimonda’s U.S. patents under U.S. law, despite the insolvency administrator’s election of non-performance under German law]