Friday, December 19, 2003
ProMOS Technologies and Elpida Memory Inc abandoned efforts to forge a partnership on Friday after several months of negotiation yielded little “common ground” upon which the memory makers could base an alliance.
Undeterred, however, ProMOS also said Friday that it had struck up a relationship with Korean DRAM maker Hynix Semiconductor Inc. that covers technology licensing, foundry services and collaboration on process technology.
ProMOS said it signed an MOU to trade capacity for technology, a similar scenario to when it was a partner with Infineon Technologies.
ProMOS and Infineon ended their relationship earlier this year over differences on pricing, capacity allocation and future capital investment. That falling out forced ProMOS to look elsewhere for process technology and a potential partner for future fabs.
Currently, ProMOS runs one 200mm fab and one 300mm fab, scheduled to ramp to 13,500 per month by year's end. Promos hopes to start building a second 12-inch wafer fab in mid 2004 and ramp it to production in 2005. Elpida had been cited as a likely partner.
It's doubtful that debt-laden Hynix could put up much cash now to help ProMOS build a fab, but ProMOS hinted that Hynix may be able to do so next year if the companies can advance the MOU to a final agreement.
By: DocMemory
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