Infineon Technologies AG today formally opened its China backend production line plant–Infineon Technologies Suzhou Company– with the first memory products to roll off the line by the end of the year and volume production expected to begin early next year.

Construction of the facility began in October 2003 and once completed will have a maximum capacity of up to one billion memory chips a year. The new company is located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, west of Shanghai, and is actually a joint venture with Infineon holding 72.5% and China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Venture Co. holding the remaining 27.5%.

The new facility is being developed in stages as growth and global semiconductor market trends dictate with the total investment expected to reach approximately US$1 billion. When operating at full capacity, Infineon Technologies Suzhou could employ more than 1,000 people.

At the same time, Infineon opened an IT Development Center in Suzhou to support the company's IT activities in the Asia-Pacific region and will concentrate on manufacturing execution systems, equipment integration and high automation, data collection and analysis, and business intelligence systems in the manufacturing process.