Siemens AG has upgraded plans for its Dresden semiconductor plant now under construction, and has decided that it will do finishing and testing as well as fabrication of the 64M-bit memory chips for which the fab is being built. The back-end expansion will add about $65m to the cost of the plant, which was initially put at $1,800m or so – but you know how these things creep up between conception and completion, and will add 250 more jobs for a total of 1,450. Construction began in July; completion is set for 1996; Siemens looks to new automation techniques and quicker throughput to stay competitive.
