DRESDEN IS THE HOME OF MICROELECTRONICS

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Dresden - Saxon Economic Hub in the Center of Europe

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Dresden is a unique place; more than half a million people reside in the Elbe metropolis, and the city’s population continues to grow with a stable upward trend. Dresden maintains its status as the city with the highest birth rates in Germany.  More than 12 million tourists visit Dresden every year and as an important science and convention location it attracts national and international researchers and entrepreneurs year-round.

Dresden’s economic success is based on a wide range of key technologies including microelectronics, information-and-communications, new materials and nanotechnology, life sciences and biotechnology. Theys key technologies are helping us to develope Dresden to a “smart city”.

With these accolades, the Saxon capital is continuing a long tradition. European porcelain, the coffee filter, SLR cameras, minicomputers and 3D displays are all Dresden inventions: even the brassiere was once dreamt up in this city on the Elbe.

In the 1970s, the GDR computer producer Robotron placed Dresden at the front lines; the IT-pioneers delivered across borders to West Germany and to the United States. Based on this roots, Dresden workshops today produce 200 different types of chips. The European home to the entire microelectronics value-added chain, from microchip design, high-volume wafer production and processing to a wide range of companies in the supply and service sectors and the end-user industry is located in Dresden. Half of all microchips made in Europe come from Dresden, which enjoys a worldwide reputation as the largest, most innovative microelectronics location on the continent. 1,500 businesses with over 48,000 workers make up Dresden's microelectronics cluster.

The high-volume production of 300-mm thin wafers at Globalfoundries and the high-volume production of power electronics at Infineon in Dresden are unique in Europe. Today, every second chip produced in Europe is made in Dresden.  The “Research Factory of Microelectronics Germany” will enables a research at an international top level in Dresden. New semiconductor factory of Bosch in Dresden – world’s leading international automotive suppliers is investing 1 billion euros.

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Dresden is home for Science

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The foundation or base of this extraordinary development is the outstanding researcher potential in Dresden. Nowhere else in Germany can so many scientists and research institutions be found in such a small area: Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibnitz, Max-Planck, Von Ardenne, NamLab… there are few other cities in Europe with such intensive research as in Dresden. Almost half of all workers have scientific and technological careers or have studied a subject in that field. The people of Dresden have a deep-rooted tradition of engineering and openness towards new technologies.

Dresden University of Technology is eastern Germany's only 'University of Excellence.' Over the past few years, science in Dresden has been the subject of increasing acknowledgment and attention through winning well-known awards.

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Dresden is home for microelectronic automation and industry 4.0

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The interdisciplinary collaboration between businesses and research facilities helps move Dresden forward. The Dresden location for microelectronics research employs a staff of expert automation specialists. Four leading companies have formed a network for innovation called the Automation Network Dresden (AND). One of the technological front-runners for the equipment for Smart Fabs is the Dresden enterprise Fabmatics GmbH. The automation specialist developed ‘Scout’, a self-navigating robot for flexible use in chip factories. Void of any guide systems on the floor or ceiling, Scout takes care of transportation and handling. Innovative 3-D sensor technology ensures that the robotic colleague can safely be employed even where men and machines share a narrow space.

One of the larger microelectronics giants in Dresden, Infineon, is considered the blueprint for intelligent networking of the entire production in the Smart-Fab. The chip expert’s Dresden site is one of the most highly automated chip factories worldwide. All moving parts including the boxes that transport wafers from process to process are equipped with RFID-chips (radio-frequency identification-chips) and deliver information that is important for the control of the manufacturing process.

In Dresden, hardware and software specialists are actively collaborating. In the workshop ‘Cyber-Physical Systems’ of the industry association ‘Silicon Saxony’, representatives of Dresden’s microelectronics and software sectors meet regularly to discuss questions regarding Industry 4.0. The forum gives its members, among them T-Systems Multimedia Solutions, Technical University Dresden, Institute for Microelectronics and Mechatronics-Systems, and Infineon, opportunities to exchange experiences from industry and research, which proves that intelligent solutions for the future of Industry 4.0 are forming beyond branch borders.

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