“Infineon welcomes the initiative of EU Commissioner Breton,” says an Infineon statement, “we regard Breton’s plans to build a European 2-nm fab as part of a longer-term strategy and roadmap. However, setting up a 2 nm fab alone does not solve the shortage problem, we see today. When talking about technology nodes, Infineon has been pointing out that we should, as a first step, look into expanding capacities in the 28 to 10 nm range, where demand will arise in the coming years.”
“We think Europe should focus on modern, but not state-of-the art, technology,” says Infineon CMO Helmut Gassel (pictured).
“The vast majority, if not all of the components, in a car today and in the next five years to come, won’t take any benefit from anything below 20-nanometers,” said Gassel, “if your product doesn’t need the functionality, then you will not use it because every time you shrink the cost goes up.”
Not until self-driving cars come in the market will there be a need for advanced ICs, added Gassel.
Gassel’s remarks follow those of ST CEO Jean-Marc Chery who recently stated: “If it’s about advanced technologies, we don’t have any reason to participate. That’s marginal to our activities.”
If the EU targeted its initiative at the strengths of the EU chip industry like automotive, industrial and IoT chips then, said Gassel, Infineon would participate.