Bosch to build factory in Dresden for iot and vehicle chips

The German Bosch has announced that it is building a 300mm fab in Dresden for an amount of 1.1 billion euros. There it wants to produce chips that are used in vehicles and internet-of-things devices.

According to Bosch, construction of the plant should be completed by the end of 2019. Production should then start in 2021, following an initial phase. The company aims to achieve economies of scale by using 300mm wafers. The factory is also expected to create approximately 700 new workplaces. According to Bloomberg, it is the highest investment amount in its history for Bosch, the world’s largest supplier of auto parts.

Bosch has been active in chip production for 45 years, for example for asics and micro-electromechanical systems. For example, every new car in 2016 had an average of nine Bosch chips on board, the company claims. The company has another factory in Reutlingen, Germany, where it produces 1.5 million asics and four million mems daily on both 150mm and 200mm wafers.

Chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries also has a fab in Dresden. There, the company started preparations for its 12fdx platform last year. Dresden is the capital of the German state of Sachsen, which also refers to itself as ‘Silicon Saxony’. That is the name of a trade association for various companies within the chip industry.