Communicant Semiconductor Technologies

Communicant Semiconductor Technologies AG was a company based in Frankfurt (Oder), Eastern Germany, that aimed to mass-produce integrated circuits based on a carbon-doped silicon-germanium (Si-Ge:C) technology. The technology was developed by a local institute founded during the Communist era, Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP).

Some integrated circuits manufactured in a Cold War predecessor of Communicant, a state-owned enterprise called Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder). HFO was East Germany's biggest producer of microelectronics. All ICs shown here are (sometimes slightly changed) copies of either US American or West German types.

History

Communist era

IHP was founded as Institut für Halbleiterphysik (tr. Institute for Semiconductor Physics), on December 22, 1983, from the research part of its parent organization, Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) (HFO, tr. "Semiconductor Factory in Frankfurt (Oder)"), then the largest IC factory in East Germany. HFO itself was founded in 1959. On the eve of reunification the plant had 8000 employees.[1]

After German reunification in 1990

After German reunification, HFO lost its customer base in the Soviet bloc. Efforts were made to adapt, but it shrank from 8,000 to 100 people and finally closed in July 2002.[2][3] However, IHP remained healthy and continued to receive research funding and to develop new technology. It received an English name Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics and kept the original initialism. Its staff won patents for a method where carbon doping prevents performance-killing boron diffusion. The new federal government invested to bring economic development and to mitigate unemployment. IHP and Communicant became part of one such project. The Si-Ge:C technology from IHP and its productization at Communicant targeted wireless Internet applications.[1] Investors included Intel, the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority, and Deutsche Bank.[1][4][5][6] Despite the earlier bursting of the dot.com bubble, it secured the equivalent of $325 million in private equity in April 2002.[7] But the plan stirred controversy and acquired opponents: Infineon (which had a competing Si-Ge factory in Dresden) opposed it.[8][9] In April 2003, Infineon threatened to move from Germany to Switzerland, citing high taxes.[10] Then in December 2003, the federal loan guarantees to cover 75 percent of the project's €1.3 billion cost did not materialize and Communicant shut down with the factory unfinished.[8][11][12]

Aftermath

Infineon stayed headquartered in Munich, Germany.[13] The failure of the project was the topic of detailed post-mortems.[14][15] In November 2006, the Hamburg-based solar energy company Conergy bought the 300,000-square-meter (74-acre) site and built a production plant for solar cells and modules.[16][17]

References
  1. "Intel to Take a Minority Stake In East German Chip Plant". Wall Street Journal. 2001-02-08. Retrieved 2015-10-27. IHP director Professor Abbas Ourmazd described this as the key technology for wireless Internet connections. ... Frankfurt and der Oder ... was a major technology center during the Communist era, housing a plant which employed 8,000 people.
  2. Ewing, Jack (2002-10-13). "Eastern Germany's Silicon Dream". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2015-10-30. Finally, in July, after the workforce had shrunk below 100, he lost his job, too.
  3. Valerius, G. (1998). "Gleiche Chancen ungleich genutzt? : erwerbsbiographische Mobilitätspfade im ostdeutschen Transformationsprozeß zwischen 1990 und 1996 ; Studie zum beruflichen Verbleib einer ausgewählten Ingenieurgruppe des VEB Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder)" [Lit. "Equal opportunities used unequally? : Employment biographic mobility paths in the East German transformation process between 1990 and 1996 ; Study on the professional fate of a selected group of engineers of the state-owned enterprise, Semiconductor Factory in Frankfurt (Oder)]. Arbeitsberichte FIT, Frankfurt Oder, Viadrina (in German). 98 (2).
  4. "Proposed German Chip Plant Has Hard Time Securing Funds". Wall Street Journal. 2001-06-06. Retrieved 2015-10-27. Intel has identified the "outstanding technology" offered by local state-owned semiconductor research institute IHP as the factor that had attracted it to the project.
  5. "Communicant Semiconductor Technologies AG". Businessweek/Bloomberg. Retrieved 2015-06-11.
  6. Norr, Henry (2001-06-25). "Big Blue designs faster chip". SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-10-27. In February Intel announced an investment in a German company called Communicant Semiconductor Technologies, which is developing a silicon-germanium manufacturing facility.
  7. "Communicant CEO resigns suddenly". EETimes. 2002-06-13. Retrieved 2015-10-30. In April, Communicant secured $325 million in private equity.
  8. Bartsch, Michael (2003-10-21). "Wundertätige werden weniger" [The Miracle Fades]. Die Tageszeitung (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  9. Mara, Michael (2003-10-12). "Betreiber der Chipfabrik glauben nicht mehr an ihren Erfolg". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-30. However, well-known suppliers [of semiconductor manufacturing equipment] have been warned by new information coming from the competition in Dresden (Infineon is developing new production facilities there) they shouldn't negotiate new contracts with Communicant because federal-state-guarantees have not been granted. Communicant believes that a powerful lobby, reaching as far as the Federal Ministry of Economics, wants to prevent the building of the chip factory in Frankfurt.
  10. Karnitschnig, Matthew (29 April 2003). "Infineon Plans to Move Its Base From Germany to Switzerland". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-10-29. In what could become a test case for large companies seeking to escape Germany's high taxes and labor costs, Infineon Technologies AG is pursuing a plan to shift the chip maker's headquarters abroad.
  11. O'Brien, Kevin (2004-03-18). "A German project still reeling from effects of downturn". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-27. State lawmakers in December finally put an end to the factory when they rejected loan guarantees to cover 75 percent of the project's €1.3 billion cost sought by Communicant.
  12. "E-Mail-Aktion zur Brandenburger Chipfabrik" [E-mail Campaign for Brandenburg chip factory]. Heise Online (in German). 2003-11-14. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
  13. Clark, Don; Dauer, Ulrike (2014-08-20). "Infineon to Buy International Rectifier for $3 Billion". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-10-29. The Munich-based spinoff makes a wide variety of chips for industrial equipment, cars and other applications.
  14. Matten, Antje (2004-11-09). Vom Luftschloss zum Millionengrab - Die Chipfabrik in Frankfurt/Oder als Fallbeispiel gescheiterter brandenburgischer Wirtschaftsförderung [From castle in the air to millions in the grave - The chip factory in Frankfurt (Oder) as a case study of failed Brandenburg Economic Development] (in German). GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-638-32356-7.
  15. Litz, Christian (2004-03-01). "Der Plan" [The plan]. brand eins Wirtschaftsmagazin (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-30.
  16. "Conergy hat jetzt ein blaues Dach" [Conergy now has a blue roof]. Märkische Oderzeitung (in German). 2009-04-22. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  17. Schreiber, Jörg (2006-11-12). "Solarenergie : "Solarhauptstadt" Frankfurt (Oder)" [Solar Energy : "Capital City of Solar" Frankfurt (Oder)]. Zeit Online (in German). Retrieved 2015-10-30.
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