The construction of the new Infineon Technologies Research Centre in Bucharest is moving fast

Infineon already has 30 employees in Romania

 

Bucharest, Romania and Villach, Austria - September 20, 2005. On the 1st of April 2005, Infineon Technologies announced having established its new subsidiary in Romania: Infineon Technologies Romania SRL. Ever since, the construction of the Bucharest Research Centre has moved fast.

 

The new Research Centre specialises in the development of power semiconductors with analogical and digital functions (Power-Mixed-Signal) for applications in the automotive industry and others. Thus, Infineon is trying to meet the increasing demand for performing semiconductors in these industries. Power semiconductors regulate the energy supply of various electricity consumers, such as the electric window lifting system in a car door. The new Research Centre, the subsidiary of Infineon Technologies Austria AG, strengthens the Alliance of Research Centres in the Automotive and Industrial Electronics, which currently has offices in Villach and Graz (Austria), Munich (Germany) and Padua (Italy).

 

The management of Infineon Technologies Romania has been taken over by Mr. Thomas Simonis, a German citizen, who is the company’s Managing Director. Mr. Thomas Simonis is an electronics engineer, has been working in the field since 1989 and joined Infineon in 1998. In the past two years, he has successfully managed the software development centre in Bangalore/India. „I am glad to have the opportunity to establish and manage this Research Centre from Romania, a country where Infineon has not been represented so far. Our plans are being received with a lot of interest and enjoy the support of the authorities. Living and working in a country I used to know very little until now is a personal experience which expands my cultural horizon. My main objectives are to motivate the people to work in research and development, to position Infineon as an attractive company in the Romanian business environment and contribute to the company’s success together with the new team”, Thomas Simonis summarized his commitment as Managing Director of Infineon Technologies Romania.

 

Since its establishment in the spring of 2005, Infineon has managed to attract around 30 engineers. Most of them follow training courses in the research centres from Villach and Munich in order to acquire specific knowledge related to the development of semiconductors. Through an “intercultural training” specifically created by Infineon, the Romanian   engineers will be trained in the next six to twelve months with regard to both their technical tasks and the company’s culture.

 

The offices of the Bucharest Research Centres comply with the requirements of a specific development environment. On an area of about 2,200 square meters, Infineon Technologies is building offices, research laboratories and measurement technique laboratories.

 

Infineon also focuses on the establishment of tight connections with the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the first steps in the development of common master programmes being already taken. The goal of such programmes is to complete the university curricula with subject matters that will see a high demand for research and development activities in the area of semiconductors in the near or medium future.

 

The selection of Romania as a location for the new research and development centre is based on the special conditions identified here and the high expectations of Infineon Technologies. Dr. Reinhard Ploss, Group Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive, Industrial and Multimarket Division of Infineon Technologies AG and CEO of Infineon Technologies Austria AG declares: „The existing education largely meets our expectations from highly qualified research engineers. Public institutions are strongly oriented towards the High - Tech field, which lays the foundations for favourable economic conditions that have become indispensable for a company to affirm itself on the global market at acceptable costs. It is now necessary that these factors, which have determined our choice of the location for our investment, to prove their value in practice as well. In this latter case, there is an expansion potential for the Bucharest Research Centre”.

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, provides semiconductors and system solutions for the automotive, electronics and multimarket, for communication applications and memory products. Infineon is present worldwide and conducts its operations through its subsidiaries in the USA, in San Jose, California, in the Asia-Pacific region, in Singapore, and Japan, Tokyo. With about 35,600 employees, Infineon recorded EUR 7.19 billion in turnover in the financial year 2004 (as of the end of September). The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, being included in the DAX, as well as on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), under the „IFX” symbol. For additional information, please visit www.infineon.com.