Infineon Technologies has announced that it will invest US$160 million in 2011 to expand its production capacity, R&D and to upgrade its manufacturing facilities in Malacca, Malaysia. The investment will mainly increase the capacity to produce power semiconductors for energy efficiency applications.

"This investment is another step by Infineon to expand its presence in Asia and to integrate more tightly into local market structures," the company said.

Infineon employs nearly 7,000 employees in Malacca at present. The expansion project will create another 350 jobs at its factory site in the city in 2011, the company indicated.

Infineon revealed that in its fiscal 2010, the Asia region (including Japan) accounted for 42% of its total revenues.

Asia has developed into a key market for global semiconductor sales in recent years, Infineon said, adding that the company continuously expands its business within the region. In January, Infineon opened a new entity in Beijing, China, called Infineon Integrated Circuits (Beijing). In addition to sales and marketing, application R&D and central functions, the new entity houses a technical center for automotive solutions and an IGBT stacks manufacturing facility.

IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) are power semiconductors used for instance to drive electric motors in cars or high-speed trains and in renewable energy generation systems.