Intel, Micron to build fourth fab in Singapore

Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. have agreed to establish their fourth wafer fab for the production of NAND flash memories in Singapore.

Since the formation of the Intel-Micron joint venture IM Flash Technologies LLC in January 2006, the companies have brought online a 300mm NAND fabrication facility in Manassas, Virginia, with a Lehi, Utah 300mm wafer fab on track to be in production early in 2007. The venture also currently produces NAND through existing capacity at Micron's Boise, Idaho, fabrication facilities.

Both companies said that they intend to form a JV in Singapore to build and manage a NAND flash wafer fab that will come online in the second half of 2008. The fab would initially use a 50nm process technology on 300mm wafers. The Singapore JV's facility is expected to break ground in the first half of 2007.

Micron already has a joint venture in Singapore—with Hewlett Packard, Canon and the Singapore Economic Development Board—for the production of DRAMs.

"We are quite pleased with the progress IM Flash Technologies has made in a very short period of time positioning us for future growth in the NAND marketplace," said Brian Harrison, general manager of Intel's flash memory group, in a statement. "By executing to our strategy of ramping one 300mm fab per year, we fully expect to become one of the top manufacturers of NAND flash memory."

- Peter Clarke
EE Times-Europe