Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt

The Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was formed in 1978 when the VVB Bauelemente und Vakuumtechnik was split into VEB Kombinat Elektronische Bauelemente Teltow for passive electronic components and VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt for active electronic components. However, the history of many of the individual plants reaches back further, in some cases to before the Second World War. In 1971 the first integrated circuits had been manufactured — the D100C (TTL) by Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) and the U101D (PMOS logic) by Funkwerk Erfurt.[1][2] To put this into perspective, the first TTL circuits went into production in the US 10 years and at Siemens in West Germany 5 years before East Germany. The first microprocessor, the U808D, followed in 1978, 6 years after the Intel 8008 that the U808 was cloned from. Further milestones were the U880 (Zilog Z80 clone) in 1980 and the first 16-bit microprocessor U8000 (Zilog Z8000 clone) in 1984.[3] The ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany had identified the development of the microelectronics sector as a primary goal. Huge sums were spent in order to catch up to the West — between 1986 and 1990 about 7% of the country-wide industry investment.[1] However, this effort was hampered by several factors: the general inefficiency of the planned economy, insufficient cooperation with other Comecon countries, and western CoCom export restrictions that prevented the importation of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.[4] Nonetheless, the development program achieved samples of a 1Mbit dRAM chip (U61000) in 1988 and a 32-bit processor (U80701) in 1989. Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt achieved a feature size of 3 µm on 4-inch wafers in 1984 (plant ESO I), 2.5 µm in 1988 (plant ESO II), and 1.5 µm on 5-inch wafers in 1990 (plant ESO III).[1] In 1989, Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) produced 110 million integrated circuits and Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt produced 35 million.[1]

The Kombinat consisted of a number of plants across East Germany[21] (listed with their production profile in 1989):

• VEB Mikroelektronik "Karl Marx" Erfurt (MME), before 1983 Funkwerk Erfurt (FWE)[22] — Kombinat headquarters; NMOS and CMOS digital integrated circuits
• VEB Halbleiterwerk Frankfurt (Oder) (HFO) — bipolar analogue and digital integrated circuits, mixed-signal integrated circuits, CMOS integrated circuits, low-power bipolar junction transistors
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Anna Seghers" Neuhaus am Rennweg, before 1981 Röhrenwerk Neuhaus am Rennweg (RWN)[19] — bipolar junction transistors
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Karl Liebknecht" Stahnsdorf (MLS), before 1981 Gleichrichterwerk Stahnsdorf (GWS)[14] — power semiconductor devices (silicon rectifier diodes, bipolar junction transistors), pressure sensors
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Robert Harnau" Großräschen, former Gleichrichterwerk Großräschen — selenium rectifiers and silicon rectifier diodes
• VEB Werk für Fernsehelektronik Berlin (WF) — CRTs, LEDs, LCDs, optoelectronics
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Wilhelm Pieck" Mühlhausen (MPM), before 1982 Röhrenwerk Mühlhausen[23] — low-power diodes (including Zener diodes); also KC85 series home computers, pocket calculators
• VEB Röhrenwerk Rudolstadt, before 1961 Phönix Röntgenröhrenwerk Rudolstadt[24] — X-ray tubes
• VEB Applikationszentrum Elektronik Berlin (AEB) — import of electronic components, documentation, application support
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Friedrich Engels" Ilmenau, before 1983 Elektroglas Ilmenau[25] — semiconductor packages
• VEB Mikroelektronik Secura-Werke Berlin[26] — components for CRTs; also photocopiers
• VEB Mikroelektronik "Bruno Baum" Zehdenick, before 1977 Isolierwerk Zehdenick[27] — punched parts, insulating materials
• VEB Spurenmetalle Freiberg — silicon and gallium arsenide wafers
• VEB Glaskolbenwerk Weißwasser — glass envelopes for CRTs[28]

Two plants from Kombinat Mikroelektronik were moved to VEB Kombinat "Carl Zeiss" Jena in 1986:

• VEB Zentrum für Forschung und Technologie Mikroelektronik Dresden (ZFTM) — development and pilot production of integrated circuits
• VEB Hochvakuum Dresden — equipment for physical vapor deposition

The East German clock and watch industry formed part of the Kombinat Mikroelektronik as the Leitbereich Uhren (Clock Directorate) with a number of plants:

• VEB Uhrenwerke Ruhla — also CMOS integrated circuits, primarily for watches and clocks
• VEB Uhrenwerk Glashütte
• VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar
• VEB Plastverarbeitung Eisenach
• VEB Feinwerktechnik Dresden

The type designations for both discrete semiconductor devices and integrated circuits were specified in state standard TGL 38015.[30] The designations for discrete semiconductors are similar to the Pro Electron specification and are discussed there.

The type designation for integrated circuits initially (in 1971) consisted of one letter for the basic type and temperature range, a three-digit type number, and one letter for the package type.[2] Over time this proved inflexible and the plants started adding letters for further temperature ranges, speed classes, etc. (e.g. a second letter after the basic type to indicate the speed class of a processor, as in UD8820M). In order to curb these somewhat uncoordinated extensions and also out of a desire to keep the type numbers in common with international equivalents, the standard was revised in 1986 (the revision came into force in April 1987).[30] Almost arbitrary type numbers were allowed now , including additional letters in the type number if the international equivalent had them (e.g. U74HCT02DK). The temperature range was added as a separate letter at the end. A 2-digit number could follow the temperature letter in order to indicate the maximum clock frequency of a microprocessor (in MHz, e.g U880DC08) or the access time of a memory circuit (in units of nanoseconds or tens of nanoseconds, e.g. U60998CC12). Existing type designations were kept even if they did not fully conform to the new standard (e.g. V4028D). Integrated circuits that did not meet the official specifications, were sold as hobbyist versions. More often than not, these were the only versions available to hobbyists. Before 1987 the hobbyist versions were assigned separate basic type letters while keeping the type number (e.g. an A109D that did not meet its specifications would become an R109D).[31] From 1987 onwards, S1 was appended to the unchanged type designation for hobbyist versions (e.g. U6516D S1).

New package type letters were added in 1987 while the previously defined letters remained unchanged.

In the early years all integrated circuit packages were manufactured with a spacing of 2.5 mm between pins just like in the Soviet Union and unlike the 2.54 mm (1/10") spacing used in the West. Over time more and more circuits with 16 or more pins were produced with a 2.54 mm spacing. Where a certain circuit was available with either of the two spacings, TGL 38015 required that the version with a 2.54 mm spacing be marked with the letter "Z" (for German: Zoll) on the package.[30]

The temperature range letter was introduced only in 1987 and therefore not many integrated circuits were labelled with it.

Beside the type designation the manufacturing date was printed on integrated circuits. From 1978 onwards the IEC 60062 letter and digit code was used for manufacturing date (the respective state standard TGL 31667[40] does not mention IEC 60062 but the encoding is identical).

Following the dissolution of Kombinat Mikroelektronik in 1990, the plants in Frankfurt (Oder) and Erfurt kept using the East German integrated circuit designation until 1992 while ZMD in Dresden applied a slightly modified version until about 2005 (albeit with the date code in a 4-digit year/month format since 1991).[41]

The East German integrated circuit designation was also used by Componentes Electrónicos "Ernesto Che Guevara" in Pinar del Río in the late 1980s (e.g. A210[42]).

• Electronics industry in East Germany
• VEB Robotron

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