SAW Components is a leading micro-chip manufacturing plant, including SAW devices, medical components, a high-volume wafer foundry, advanced packaging and assembly lines and a development and production line for wireless SAW sensor systems.
Interview with Frieder Birkholz, Head of Sales at SAW COMPONENTS Dresden GmbH.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Frieder Birkholz: The company is led by Mr. Steffen Zietzschmann, CEO, owner and founder of SAW COMPONENTS. It is located in Dresden, Germany, in its own factory providing a 1200m² class 3 clean room. Operating fully independent for over 30 years, the company has gained high experience and an excellent reputation in the market.
The company is certified to ISO 9001 and the medical device standard ISO13485.
SAW COMPONENTS operates as a chip manufacturer for all small and big players in the market. It offers its customers the flexibility of production starting at a single chip up to several thousand wafers per month.
What’s the news about new products/services?
F.B: SAW COMPONENTS origins are Surface-Acoustic-Wave (SAW) devices. The company has transformed into a technology platform far into new products fields. It offers its manufacturing technology for:
- SAW devices
- Temperature, Strain, RFID sensors
- Micro-optics
- Biological and medical products
What are the ranges of products/services?
F.B: The offered manufacturing technologies cover:
- 300nm lithography
- Thin film deposition for metals like Titanium, Aluminum and Aluminum-Copper, but also Gold, Silver, Platinum and others
- Isolators like SiO2, SiN and ALD processes
- Use of substrates like Glass, Quartz, Lithium Tantalate and Lithium Niobate, Silicon and others in the sizes of 100mm, 150mm and 200mm.
- Wafer dicing, die bonding, wire bonding, seam and projection welding
- Packaging of medical cartridges and sensors
- High temperature chips for use up to 350°C
What is the state of the market where you are currently active? | What can you tell us about market trends?
F.B: The market for SAW filters for the mobile phone market is extremely competitive and new manufacturers from China enter the market very quickly and aggressively. In European politics, the strategic importance of manufacturing capabilities for these critical components in the microchip world remains basically unnoticed and results in a dramatic lack of support from the institutions for the few remaining European manufacturers. After years of price dumping only two companies in Europe remain, who still have the know-how to manufacture SAW devices in quality suitable for mobile applications. One of them is SAW COMPONENTS. In future, this lack of awareness in the politics will results in a complete dependency of Europe on Asian manufacturers with all the risks this includes.
The chip-war between the US and China resulted in a trend to localize supply chains and to move production back to Europe. This tendency is now contradicted by the recent energy price crisis, inflation and the resulting increased labor and manufacturing cost in Europe.
While the SAW business remains one of the core activities of SAW COMPONENTS, we evolve into the manufacturer for new emerging businesses like lab-on-chip, bio-chip and medical applications. In the next 10 years, nano-technology and micro-fluidics will allow medical personnel all around the world to use fast and reliable point-of-care diagnostics for time critical patient treatments like critical heart failure or brain injuries.
What are the most innovative products/services marketed? | What estimations do you have for 2024?
F.B: SAW COMPONENTS invests continuously into new technologies to adapt to the changing market demands. This includes the development of medical-certified production lines, a full 200mm wafer production like or micro-fluidic technologies for lab-on-chip applications.
By 2024, SAW COMPONENTS and partners founded the BioSAW GmbH, which will fully focus on the development of future point-of-care diagnostic solutions.
Further collaborations in the medical market with innovative start-up companies around the globe as well as with established players exploring the new technology possibilities are clear signs for the rising demand for medical bio-chip solutions.