Chip companies can only supply two-thirds of the NAND flash market with the shortage expected to last at least another 12 months.

"People are screaming for product," Helmut Schock, European memory boss of market leader Toshiba, told Electronics Weekly. "There is only about 65-70 percent supply coverage."

Although market leader Samsung is reported to be turning over half a 300mm fab for NAND flash memory production, (representing 10,000 wafers a month), Schock reckons: "That's not going to save the world. Samsung was saying it expects shortages up to the end of next year. We have the same feeling at the moment."

In an effort to alleviate the situation, Renesas Technology has ramped up production, and market entries are expected from Infineon Technologies and the STMicroelectronics/Hynix alliance.

"We are outsourcing our 1Gbit at Powerchip starting in Q4 2004, we are ramping it at our 300mm fab Trecenti and, in the second half of 2004, we'll bring out our 4Gbit on 90nm," Matthew Trowbridge, CEO of Renesas Europe said.

At Infineon, CEO Harald Eggars said: "We will qualify a 512Mbit device by the end of the year and will be in volume production next year."

ST/Hynix is also starting with a 512Mbit memory. "Production will start at Hynix in Q4," said Carlo Bozotti, general manager of the memory products group at ST.

Overall flash sales (NAND and NOR) will grow by 44 percent in 2003 to more than $11 billion, according to iSuppli. This makes flash the fastest growing product in the chip industry while NAND is the fastest growing flash-type, representing 40 percent of the overall flash market in 2003, up from 10 percent in 2001.

In Q3, Samsung and Toshiba overtook the former number one and two flash players - Intel and Spansion (the AMD/Fujsitu flash alliance), which are primarily NOR-type suppliers. Intel said it won't compete in NAND flash.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved