Hoehenkirchen Nowhere is the success of Lauterbach GmbH more impressive than in the mail room of the medium-sized company. The names of the world’s best-known chip manufacturers are emblazoned on the labels of the packages. The shipments go to Silicon Valley, are destined for customers in Dresden or in Taiwan or Malaysia.
From Intel to Nvidia to Qualcomm, the world’s largest and best-known chip companies buy test equipment and the associated software from Bayern.
Lauterbach has been supporting semiconductor developers around the world since 1979. But business has never been as good as it is now. “We benefit from the enormous variety of chips and the complexity,” says Managing Director Norbert Weiß. Because every type of semiconductor from a manufacturer requires a specially developed tool from Lauterbach.
Europe’s share of global chip production has shrunk to less than ten percent in recent years. Lauterbach has developed in a completely different way: Weiß estimates the global market share to be more than 40 percent – and the trend is rising. The Bavarians are thus one of the few German success stories in the strategically important semiconductor industry, alongside listed chip machine manufacturers such as Aixtron and Süss Microtec and the Dax group Infineon.
Much praise from customers
Lauterbach is hardly known to the general public. In the industry, however, the Bavarians enjoy an excellent reputation. Example NXP: The group has been working closely with Lauterbach for around 30 years, and that across several product generations of microcontrollers and processors, says Manuel Alves, Senior Vice President of the Dutch chip manufacturer. The development tools would help NXP “meet the highest standards of security, reliability and performance,” says the manager.
The company’s work is also valued at STMicroelectronics, Europe’s largest chip manufacturer. According to Carsten Demuth, Digital Products and System Marketing Manager of the Franco-Italian semiconductor group, Lauterbach provides STMicroelectronics with significant support in the development process of the semiconductors through to mass production in order to make them available to end customers as quickly as possible. Among other things, this is important in order to supply microcontrollers for German car manufacturers.
Microcontrollers are minicomputers for special tasks that are used in many places in vehicles. These components have been scarce for years, and the delivery times are correspondingly long. It is therefore particularly important for the semiconductor companies to make rapid progress in development.
At Infineon, they say that Lauterbach’s debuggers are “in use every day” and have been for many years. Above all, the customer service is exemplary, says the largest German semiconductor manufacturer on request.
The test and analysis tools business is highly profitable. According to the information in the Federal Gazette, the company achieved sales of 61.8 million euros in 2021 and thus generated a profit of 27.9 million euros. That’s a margin that even the leading chipmakers can only dream of. According to the company, sales increased to 65 million euros last year.
Lothar Lauterbach founded the company 44 years ago in a terraced house in Munich’s commuter belt. When managers from Bosch or Infineon come to visit today, they are received in a representative headquarters in Höhenkirchen, which offers an unobstructed view of the Alps from the top floor.
Car manufacturers are now also ordering from Lauterbach
However, the building is not purely a prestige building, says Stephan Lauterbach. Rather, it serves to offer the highly specialized and therefore heavily courted chip experts a pleasant working environment.
The 58-year-old electrical engineer is responsible for the technical part. His brother is no longer active in the company. “Most of the time it was uphill, but of course we also had a dent,” says the entrepreneur. “But there has never been a downsizing.”
Lauterbach employs more than 130 people and has ten offices worldwide. He prefers to let others talk about his products, the market and the customers. Circuits and codes are his terrain.
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Only one thing is important to him: “We have to be quick when something changes,” says Lauterbach, adding: “It’s important to keep at it.”
The medium-sized company benefits from the fact that not only the chip manufacturers themselves order the debuggers. Car manufacturers, suppliers of medical technology or smartphone manufacturers are increasingly combining different components from different manufacturers on an integrated circuit, experts speak of the “system on a chip”. Testing these designs reliably is time-consuming and only works with the right tools.
The 58-year-old electrical engineer is responsible for the technical part.
Lauterbach’s tools master even the most complex chips, such as those used in future autonomous cars, laptops or high-end smartphones. A unique selling proposition, since the competition often has to pass here. The biggest competitor is Green Hills from the USA, in Germany it’s PLS and iSystem.
According to market researchers from Gartner, the chip industry grew by one percent worldwide last year, and this year sales may shrink slightly. However, experts assume that the industry’s revenues will increase from the current 600 billion dollars to a trillion by 2030. Owner Stephan Lauterbach is therefore not worried about the future. The company should remain independent and one day be transferred to a foundation, says the entrepreneur.
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