While China DRAM startup ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is set to kick off commercial production of DRAM chips soon, its cooperative partner GigaDevice Semiconductor Beijing is moving to raise new funds to finance development of new DRAM manufacturing technologies, according to industry sources.

The sources said that CXMT will start delivering 19nm LPDDR4 memory samples to its potential customers of mobile devices in October 2019 and has set an initial output target at 20,000 wafers per month. The company is also slated to start trial production of 10nm DDR4 DRAM by the end of the year.

GigaDevice, whose former chairman and CEO Yiming Zhu now serves as CXMT's CEO and also virtually controls the NOR flash maker, will accelerate a private placement plan seeking to raise CNY4.3 billion (US$604.36 million) from potential investors to support its deployment in the DRAM segment.

Based on a cooperation pact signed in October 2017, GigaDevice will contribute CNY3.6 billion to a CNY18 billion DRAM development project in cooperation with CXMT. In April 2019, both firms signed another agreement allowing GigaDevice to invest CNY300 million in CXMT, further strengthening their joint in-house development of new memory technologies and products to serve broader customer bases.

Besides focusing its SPI NOR flash chips on IoT, in-vehicle and network applications, GigaDevice will also cooperate with US-based Rambus to develop new RRAM technology enabling high performance and low power consumption, the sources said.

GigaDevice is now the world's fourth-largest vendor of NOR flash chips, next to Winbond, Macronix and Cypress. The company captured a 14% global market share in the second quarter of 2019, according to Chinno statistics.

By: DocMemory
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