Bosch invests a billion euros on new high-tech semiconductor plant

Betting big on Internet of Things (IoT) and future mobility applications, Bosch is setting up a new high-tech semiconductor plant for manufacturing chips in Dresden, Germany.

The process of manufacturing semiconductor chips starts with a silicon disc, also called wafer. The bigger the diameter, the more chips can be made per manufacturing cycle. With an estimated total investment of one billion euros (Rs 7,644 crore), the construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 and manufacturing to begin by 2021. Bosch estimates that its new plant will create more than 700 jobs.

“The new wafer fab is the biggest single investment in Bosch’s more than 130-year history,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. A Pricewaterhousecoopers study has it that the global semiconductor market is set to grow by more than 5 percent annually up to 2019 on the back of growth in mobility and IoT market segments.

At its wafer fab in Reutlingen, Germany, Bosch currently manufactures some 1.5 million ASICs and 4 million MEMS sensors a day on the basis of 6- and 8-inch technology. All in all, the company has made more than 8 billion MEMS sensors since 1995. Bosch’s current semiconductor portfolio includes above all acceleration, yaw, mass-flow, pressure, and environmental sensors, as well as microphones, power semiconductors, and ASICs for vehicle ECUs.

The company’s Indian operation has partnered with Intel in the US to co-develop the product by leveraging the tech giant’s strengths in the areas of computing, data and connectivity. The joint development began two years ago, with Intel initiating the process a bit earlier, by integrating its Intel Internet of Things (IoT) platform and creating the analytics, cloud and security pillars for the product.