Thursday, February 21, 2008
Toshiba and SanDisk have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to form a new production joint venture and construct a new 300-mm wafer fab in Japan to meet the anticipated future demand for NAND flash memory.
The move is an extension of a longstanding flash partnership between Tokyo-based Toshiba and Milpitas, Calif-based SanDisk. Indeed, the two companies in 2000 formed FlashVision, a 200-mm NAND flash joint venture that brought together Toshiba's advanced semiconductor process technologies and SanDisk's original multilevel cell technology. Then in 2004, the duo formed Flash Partners and a coinciding $2.6 billion fab. And later in 2006, Toshiba and SanDisk announced a $3 billion 300-mm NAND wafer fab in Japan for their joint venture Flash Alliance. Earlier this month, Toshiba detailed its 16-Gb NAND flash memory chip, manufactured on its 43-nm process technology co-developed with SanDisk, during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference.
Such an emphasis on NAND is not unwarranted. Memory-market intelligence and analysis company DRAMeXchange in January projected that demand bit growth for NAND flash is expected to surpass 130% year over year in 2008 as shipments of the four major applications of NAND, handset, MP3/PMP, digital camera, and USB flash drives, are expected to increase. Demand is also expected to increase from Apple Inc, which recently announced doubled memory in its NAND-based iPod touch and iPhone consumer electronics.
“NAND flash memory is enjoying rapid growth and is expected to expand with new applications in coming years,” Shozo Saito, president and CEO of Toshiba’s semiconductor company, said in a joint company statement today. “The new fab will build on the strong record of success we have achieved with SanDisk in flash memory product development and production, and further strengthen our partnership.”
By: DocMemory
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