Bosch revealed that it intends to construct two €170 million development centers in Reutlingen and Dresden at the Bosch Tech Day 2022. The German engineering and technology company will increase its manufacturing capacity by adding 3,000 square meters of clean-room space to its Dresden wafer fab.
Bosch plans plans to invest €3 billion in its semiconductor division between now and 2026. The fund is partly financed by the EU and German government as part of the European Chips Act. The company estimates it will devote around €400 million of its investment fund to boosting production capacity between now and 2025. Two new German wafers fabs play a central role.
Bosch is also building a new expansion in Reutlingen that will add 3,600 square meters to the available space. Over 44,000 square meters will be added to the facility’s existing 35,000 square meters of total clean-room area.
Instead of implementing state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, it seems that Bosch plans to invest in semiconductors aimed at the automotive sector, making chips between 40 and 200 nanometers instead of the 5nm and 3nm currently entering the market for next-gen components.
What else will the investment cover?
According to Bosch, the investment will also open up new fields of innovation, such as systems-on-chips, and cites the radar sensors used by autonomous vehicles as an example. Bosch hopes to further reduce production costs.
The research will cover, among other things, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which are miniature devices in the consumer market. Bosch said its researchers are creating a projection module that is so compact it can be integrated into the frame of a pair of smart glasses.