Silicon Saxony
Encyclopedia
Silicon Saxony is a registered industry association of nearly 300 companies in the microelectronics and related sectors in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, with around 40,000 employees. Many, but not all, of those firms are situated in the north of Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

.

With a name chosen referring to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

, the area and the union — in many aspects — represent the last meaningful Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an center of microelectronics. Many of those firms have very research and capital intensive business models competing with subsidized global players, mainly from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

Industrial fields

The companies develop and produce computer calculation and memory chips or new materials and electronics for solar companies. The developed and produced small semiconductors chips are used in all kinds of cars, mobile phones, TV sets and so on.

History

Even before Germany's reunification, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 was a major center of microelectronics
Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...

 in the Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

 with 3,500 employees. While mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

, which the south of eastern Germany has a very long history in, suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, the microelectronics industries were, with public help from the state, the first industrial sectors in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 which soon recovered and also paved the way for other industries. With many more employees today than before 1990, the sector is always under heavy pressure because South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 in particular is very keen to attract the industry at any price. Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, however, are bound to competition laws of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, but could manage to keep and expand most of all the research parts of the industry, which is seen as success but also seen as very risky whenever a bigger company has serious problems, because the sector demands high concentration of resources.

Scientific environment

Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, as core-region of Silicon Saxony and yet without the headquarters of many of today's big companies, is nevertheless a very remarkable technology center with one meaningful Technical University (German TU), ten other universities and most of all an unparalleled density of semi-public institutes of applied high-technologies in many fields (for example the Max Planck Society
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes publicly funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany....

, Fraunhofer Society
Fraunhofer Society
The Fraunhofer Society is a German research organization with 60 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science . It employs around 18,000, mainly scientists and engineers, with an annual research budget of about €1.65 billion...

, Leibniz institutes, Helmholtz Association and other German academic elite institutions).

Members list

  • 3D-Micromac AG
  • Advanced Mask Technology Center GmbH & Co.KG
  • Air Liquide
    Air Liquide
    L'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide , is a major French company supplying industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, it is first in the world market in its field, now operating in over 80 countries. It is...

     Electronics
  • AMD Saxony
  • Applied Materials
    Applied Materials
    Applied Materials, Inc. is a capital equipment producer serving the semiconductor, TFT LCD display, Glass, WEB and solar manufacturing industries....

     Dresden
  • Atmel
    Atmel
    Atmel Corporation is a manufacturer of semiconductors, founded in 1984. Its focus is on system-level solutions built around flash microcontrollers...

     — Dresden
  • BASF
    BASF
    BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...

     Electronic Materials
  • Busch Semiconductor Vacuum Group B.V.
  • Carl Zeiss Innovationszentrum für Messtechnik
  • GlobalFoundries
    GLOBALFOUNDRIES
    GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's third largest independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered...

     Inc.
  • Infineon Dresden
  • MicroMaterials Center Berlin
  • me2c — [micro] electronic cluster
  • Nikon Precision Europe
  • NXP Semiconductors
  • Plastic Logic
    Plastic Logic
    Plastic Logic is a spin-off company from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and specializes in polymer transistors and electronics.The firm was founded in 2000....

     — Dresden
  • Siemens
    Siemens
    Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

     AG Dresden
  • Siltronic
    Siltronic
    Siltronic AG,is a Munich based company, which is one of the top Silicon Wafer suppliers in the world. It is 100% owned by Wacker Chemie AG and the single european-based Wafer supplier....

  • Solarwatt AG
  • Solarworld
    SolarWorld
    SolarWorld is a German company dedicated to the manufacture and marketing photovoltaic products worldwide by integrating all components of the solar value chain, from feedstock to module production, from trade with solar panels to the promotion and construction of turn-key solar power plants...

     Deutsche Solar AG
  • Tokyo Electron
    Tokyo Electron
    , or TEL, is a supplier of semiconductor fabrication equipment and flat panel display production equipment. It is headquartered in Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan....

     Europe
  • von Ardenne Anlagentechnik
  • X-Fab
    X-Fab
    The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt...

  • Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden

External links

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