Communicant Semiconductor Technologies

The technology was developed by a local institute founded during the Communist era, Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP).

Institute for Semiconductor Physics), on December 22, 1983, from the research part of its parent organization, Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) (HFO, tr.

[1] Investors included Intel, the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority, and Deutsche Bank.

[7] But the plan stirred controversy and acquired opponents: Infineon (which had a competing Si-Ge factory in Dresden) opposed it.

[10] Then in December 2003, the federal loan guarantees to cover 75 percent of the project's €1.3 billion cost did not materialize and Communicant shut down with the factory unfinished.

Some integrated circuits manufactured in a Cold War predecessor of Communicant, a state-owned enterprise called Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder). HFO was East Germany's biggest producer of microelectronics. All ICs shown here are (sometimes slightly changed) copies of either US American or West German types.