Siemens AG and Motorola Inc have fleshed out the details of their $863m semiconductor fabrication joint venture; news which was inadvertently leaked last week by Germany’s minister of science and research, Jeurgen Ruettgers (CI No 3,319). The new project, located in Dresden, Germany, will develop 300mm wafer manufacturing technology which, according to Siemens, will allow it to pack 2.5 times more chips onto each wafer, cutting production costs by 30% from existing 200mm technology. But the move to 300mm wafers will be extremely expensive in terms of developing new manufacturing processes. According to the industry association SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) the move will cost the industry between $15bn and $20bn. Hence Siemens and Motorola are teaming up to spread the cost and associated risk. The need to increase the physical size of the wafer arrives every five to eight years as the available technology for reducing the circuitry size becomes insufficient for increasing productivity. The new venture will use facilities at Siemens’ existing semiconductor plant in Dresden and is to be named Semiconductor300. The city is now well on the way to becoming Europe’s largest semiconductor center, with this announcement marking the third major chip facility to be located in Dresden in the past four years. Figures released last week show that Dresden has an unemployment rate running at 16%, and the German government is sponsoring the new development to the tune of $111m while the regional authority is providing $71m. Motorola Inc is the world’s third largest chip maker with chip sales of around $8.4bn while Siemens is currently 12th, with revenues of $4.4bn per annum.