German engineering and technology company Bosch has opened a new semiconductor factory with the aim of supplying the automotive industry, among other business areas.
Production of computer chips for Bosch power tools is expected to begin in July this year, six months earlier than originally planned, before production for automotive customers begins in September.
Construction of the factory in Dresden, Germany, cost the company around £ 860 million (€ 1 billion) and is expected to create 700 jobs.
The auto industry was hit hard by a global semiconductor shortage during the pandemic, which prompted several manufacturers to look to overhaul their component supply chains.
The shortage, initially caused by an unprecedented surge in demand, was exacerbated by a fire at a chip factory in Japan and blackouts at the chip-making hotspot in Texas, United States.
Bosch has implemented significant artificial intelligence technology at the Saxony plant, which the company says “will save automotive customers the trouble of performing time-consuming testing that would otherwise be necessary before going out of production.”
“Vehicle chips are the ultimate discipline in semiconductor technology. ” said Harald Kroeger, Bosch board member. “That’s because in cars these little building blocks have to be particularly sturdy.”
Bosch says the development of automotive semiconductors is more complicated than in other fields, requiring “specialized expertise” that it claims to have accumulated over the past decades.
“In 2016, every new vehicle in the world had on average more than nine Bosch chips on board, in devices such as the airbag control unit, brake system and parking assist system,” said declared the company. “In 2019, this figure was already over 17.”
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-07 14:58:48
