In the meantime the Saxony seeks more bearing opportunities

Rachel Lichten holds in his hands a screen the size of an A4 sheet, thick like a Notepad. "This electronic reader, she explains, could revolutionize the way we consume information.In contrast to the Amazon Kindle, already on the market, the American firm Plastic Logic reader is manufactured from organic components, allowing the screen to be more flexible and consume less energy. The management is based in Mountain View in the United States, but Plastic Logic has chosen Dresden, Germany, for its production. The reason One hand, the presence of a cluster of companies and institutes of research in organic semiconductors, but also a serious boost from public authorities, which have contributed to 35 on a total investment of EUR 97 million. A key, creating 150 jobs a year.

A whole region destabilized

Researcher for fifteen years at the University of Chemnitz, Steffen Heinz decided, beginning of 2008, create a company specialized in the use of MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) technology for industry in the incubator of the city. EDC has to win its first customers and employs now eight people. Plastic Logic, EDC: two examples which show that the "Silicon Saxony" (see opposite) has nothing lost its technological emulation since the bankruptcy of Qimonda last spring. Two start-ups have also recruited former employees of the subsidiary of Infineon memory cards. But the region is still far from having absorbed the shock to the disappearance of one of its largest employers. "There is concern that Saxony lost its links with the industrial world if production disappears." "The region was not only known for the support of the Government's R & D, but also for its industrial applications", said a spokesman for the IG Metall Union in Berlin. Not to mention 3,000 direct jobs that have been affected, 4,200 if there are subcontractors. And the impact for the Fraunhofer institutes, pillars of the R & D in Germany, who worked closely with Qimonda. A hard blow for this region, seen until now as a ray of sunshine in a Germany of the East still disaster economically.

In Saxony, this bankruptcy left more of bitterness that the Land was prepared to invest for further activity. "Qimonda technology is lost, and I am surprised at the silence in which has happened to other sectors," said Heinz Kundert, President of the Semi Europe. The lobby of the semiconductor hopes to get more attention on the part of Berlin and the European Commission.

Of new technologies

Heinz Kundert acknowledges that "it is not easy" in an industry overcapacity. In the meantime, the Saxony seeks more bearing opportunities. "We want towards us new technologies, among which the MEMS, photovoltaics, Photonic or even software," says Heinz-Martin Esser, President of the Silicon Saxony. Some companies have already integrated it in the image of 3D Micromac, a young SME specializing in laser technology, to deliver in priority the photovoltaic and medical techniques. About the Fraunhofer of Chemnitz Center, newly created, it does focus that 25 per cent of its projects on microelectronics. It is elsewhere in the solar some Qimonda alumni have found work. After the judicial administrator, Michael Jaffé, they are about 400 on a workforce of 3,000 persons to be farming elsewhere.