Top industry needs top professionals

Students working in the cleanroom at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences at the Zweibrücken campus (Photo: HSKL)

Best prospects for graduates of Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences: Wolfspeed from North Carolina, USA, and ZF, based in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, are establishing an innovation center in Saarland as part of a strategic partnership for the development of silicon carbide systems.

The American corporation is considered a global leader in silicon carbide technology, and ZF describes itself as a global technology company for the mobility of the future. The innovation center will develop silicon carbide systems and components for mobility, industrial, and energy applications. The partnership also includes ZF's financial participation in the planned construction of the world's most modern and largest 200-mm silicon carbide semiconductor manufacturing plant – in Ensdorf, Saarland.

Here, jobs will be created for 1,000 highly trained employees. But where are they supposed to come from given the current skilled labor shortage? Part of the solution is found 50 kilometers away from the small Saarland village. Here, at the Zweibrücken site of Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences, there has been a cleanroom for many years where students from all over the world learn the basics and practical aspects of semiconductor technology.

Such cleanrooms are essential for specialized manufacturing processes – especially in semiconductor production or medical technology. Particles that are always present in normal ambient air would only cause disturbances here. Therefore, appropriate filters and airlocks, along with constant temperature, humidity, and pressure control, keep these rooms as free as possible from tiny airborne particles.

And the expertise of the Zweibrücken graduates is not only needed in Ensdorf. Industry giants like Bosch, Infineon, GlobalFoundries, and Intel, for example, are planning new locations and expansions. Arguments for why semiconductors and microelectronics are so important are provided by the European Chips Act ("Shaping Europe’s digital future"). Additionally, microelectronics and communication technologies are part of the "Important Project of Common European Interest" (IPCEI) (europa.eu).

What such high-tech productions look like can be seen on a small scale (suitable for research and teaching) in the cleanroom in Zweibrücken. Because there will be an Open Campus Day at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences there: on April 22nd from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Interested parties can find more information about the Open Campus on the university's homepage: https://www.hs-kl.de/hochschule/aktuelles/termine-events/offener-campus