The move is expected to allow mass production in the new facility to be advanced to the second half of Toshiba's fiscal year 2005 from the originally planned fiscal year 2006, which Toshiba announced last December. Toshiba currently plans to start construction of the building in the first half of fiscal 2004.

Non-volatile NAND flash EEPROM is the storage memory of choice in diverse mobile products, including digital still cameras and multimedia mobile phones.

Toshiba invented NAND flash EEPROM and remains a technology and market leader, a position reinforced by its strategic partnership with SanDisk, a maker of memory cards with expertise in high-density flash EEPROM and MLC (Multilevel cell) NAND.

The total investment in the new facility (Fab 3) at Toshiba's Yokkaichi plant, in Mie prefecture, is estimated at 200 billion yen in the period through the end of fiscal year 2005.

Toshiba will fund construction of the building, while both Toshiba and SanDisk will provide funds for the manufacturing equipment.

The facility will be operated by FlashVision, Toshiba and SanDisk's joint venture for NAND flash EEPROMs. The firms will soon commence negotiations on terms of a cooperation agreement for Fab 3 at Toshiba's Yokkaichi operations.

Initial production of 10,000 wafers a month is expected when the new 300-mm facility goes online in the second half of fiscal 2005, using 70-nm process technology that Toshiba and SanDisk are now jointly developing.

Production is expected to increase from the 10,000 wafers per month (baseline) through greater wafer output and an evolutionary shift to a 55-nm process in the future.

By: DocMemory
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