More high-tech in Silicon Saxony

Jenoptik is investing more than 70 million euros in new and state-of-the-art production facility for micro-optics and sensors. Discover more about the construction project and its progress, about the groundbreaking ceremony and the future design of the high-tech manufacturing facility.

Management beim Spatenstich für die neue Hightech-Fab in Dresden

Construction work on the Jenoptik Group’s new high-tech fab at Dresden Airport Park began on September 6, 2022 with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer and Mayor Stephan Kühn, Dresden’s Councillor for Urban Development, Construction, Transport and Real Estate. The two politicians ceremonially broke ground together with Jenoptik Executive Board members Stefan Traeger and Hans-Dieter Schumacher and other representatives of the photonics group.

Image, from left: Dr. Andreas Morak (Dresden site manager), Dr. Ralf Kuschnereit (head of Jenoptik's Advanced Photonic Solutions division), Dr. Stefan Traeger (Jenoptik President & CEO), Michael Kretschmer (Minister-President of Saxony), Stephan Kühn (Mayor and Dresden’s Councillor for Urban Development, Construction, Transport and Real Estate), Hans-Dieter Schumacher (Jenoptik CFO), Hermann Spinner (CRC Clean Room Consulting, general planning), Julian Winkelhofer (head of Jenoptik's Corporate Real Estate Management).

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Extremely demanding construction and manufacturing environment

Jenoptik is investing more than 70 million euros in the new high-tech fab with a total of 11,000 square meters of net floor space, including 2,000 square meters for clean room production. Production is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2025.

The new high-tech fab will manufacture micro-optics and sensors, which are mainly used in semiconductor lithography systems. Production will take place in clean room classes ISO 5 and 3, which also meet the highest requirements for vibration-free production and temperature stability. Comprehensive vibration monitoring is also in place during the construction of the fab in order to not disrupt the production processes of neighboring companies in the industrial park.

High environmental standards taken into account

In addition to precise manufacturing conditions, the high-tech fab also meets high environmental standards: Jenoptik aims to meet the "KfW 40 Standard" and "LEED Gold Standard Certification", currently the most comprehensive and stringent building criteria in terms of sustainability.

To achieve this, comprehensive environmentally friendly measures are planned, such as a photovoltaic system, recycled materials during construction, a highly efficient building envelope including greening, cold and heat recovery, and intelligent control technology.

Dresden as a major micro-optics location

Jenoptik has been active in Dresden since 2007 and currently has around 60 employees there. With the new production facility, Jenoptik will consolidate manufacturing in Dresden, which is currently spread across several smaller external locations.

The photonics group is creating 60 additional high-quality jobs and increasing its local workforce to a total of well over 120 employees. In addition to Dresden, Jenoptik also manufactures its high-precision and micro-optics at the Thuringian sites Jena and Triptis (polymer optics), in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, as well as in Jupiter (Florida) and Huntsville (Alabama), USA.

Photonics as a growth driver

Optics & sensors for the semiconductor equipment industry as well as other sectors such as medical technology & life sciences or IT infrastructures & communications are key growth drivers for Jenoptik. As a photonics group, Jenoptik is focusing on expanding these business areas, which are expected to generate around 75 percent of the 1.2 billion euros in revenue targeted by 2025.

With the new fab, Jenoptik is meeting the rapidly growing demand for photonic solutions. Industry experts predict further growth for the semiconductor equipment industry – the main customer of the new fab’s products – in the next years.

An important area of application for micro-optics is the semiconductor equipment industry. For example, micro-optical sensors enable the exact positioning of wafers during lithographic processes for chip production. Applications include both DUV and EUV lithography.

Micro-optics and micro-optical sensors are characterized by highest precision in smallest space and very flat design. They direct light by means of micro- and nanostructures and – unlike classical optics – are manufactured in a lithography process similar to semiconductor production. In addition to chip production, they are used in other primarily technological manufacturing processes that require highly precise and or very flexible positioning of light for process steps, for example in laser material processing, or quality assurance, for example in inspection processes. The very light and small individual components, often only a few micrometers in size, can be combined to form miniaturized scanning and switching systems with flexible multiple applications.