Infineon has founded a regional company in Bucharest — Infineon Technologies Romania GesmbH — with a Development Centre specialising in power semiconductors with analogue and digital functions (power mixed signal) being set up in the Romanian capital. In particular, this will enable the company to better serve the growing demand for smart power semiconductors for automotive and industrial applications, which now also include applications in the field of research and development.

The new centre will strengthen the research community in this field, which currently incorporates sites in Villach, Padua, Munich and Graz. As a result, optimum conditions will be established for west European locations to focus even more closely on cooperation with the major automotive electronics vendors and thus drive forward product innovations. Thomas Simonis, who has spent the last two years setting up the Software Development Centre in Bangalore, India for Infineon, will assume management responsibility for the set-up that initially plans to employ around 50 people by the end of 2005.