LEOBEN, AUSTRIA – The exterior shell of AT&S' new R&D and IC substrate center here has been erected just 14 months after groundbreaking, and the company's new plant in Kulim, Malaysia has also reached a significant milestone with the completion of the facility's construction and installation of the first systems.

The company's €500 million ($537 million) plant in Leoben is the largest construction site in the Austrian state of Styria, and at the peak of activities in March and April, 1,100 people working on and bringing in the machines. The facility includes 11,000 square meters of clean room production area, and the gross floor area is 39,000 sq. m. – that corresponds to six football pitches for microelectronics. 80,000 tons of concrete were filled and 4,700 tons of steel were installed. In total, so many cables are being laid that the route from Leoben to Zagreb (270 km) could be cabled with them.

Once the project is complete in 2024, the facility will be the first in Europe to produce IC substrates – which are essential for future-oriented applications in microelectronics.

"It is something unique in and for Europe to set up this technology outside of Asia and to bring an IC substrate production of this dimension to the western world for the first time," said project manager Nikolaus Bauer-Oeppinger. "We are right on target with the construction site planned and parallel to the final outdoor work, we started bringing in the first production machines in April. So nothing stands in the way of the early start of qualification, so that our customer portfolio can be broadened and our customers can be supplied even faster and better."

In Kulim, AT&S top management recently celebrated the completion of another new plant and the installation of its first systems. The construction of a second plant has also been completed, and the start of production there will depend on the development of the market.

The Kulim project featured around 5,000 construction workers, and the facility will have a clean room area of ​​120,000 square meters, which corresponds to the size of 17 soccer fields. The 24,000 tons of steel used in its construction would be enough to build two and a half Eiffel Towers. Production is set to begin next fall.

"I am very pleased that we were able to achieve these two important milestones within 15 months after the groundbreaking - a great success after facing enormous challenges in the areas of health (pandemic), Resources and logistics had to be managed," said Ingolf Schröder, executive vice president of the AT&S microelectronics business unit.

"The construction of such a large plant was mainly possible thanks to a pool of experienced experts and a mature electrics and electronics ecosystem," said Vittorio Villari, managing director of AT&S Malaysia. "AT&S works with multinational companies that have been operating in Malaysia for more than 50 years, as well as our own future-oriented technology for high-quality IC substrates."