Elpida originally proposed the transfer. NEC's semiconductor subsidiary NEC Electronics Corp., will spin off production-related services as a wholly-owned subsidiary, and will integrate back-end units for production efficiency.

The deal calls for NEC transfer all assets of NEC Hiroshima Ltd. to Elpida. The transfer is valued at ?4 billion (about $327 million).

Elpida has been leasing the Hiroshima fab since it opened in 2000. NEC Hiroshima was the base of NEC's DRAM production. "All technologies and know-how from NEC's DRAM were concentrated at NEC Hiroshima," a spokesman said. NEC separated the fab from chip operations spun off as NEC Electronics.

The 200-mm wafer line at NEC Hiroshima has been serving as Elpida's production base for DRAMs on a 0.11 micron process used in digital consumer electronics and mobile phones. Elpida uses its 300-mm wafer line mainly for 0.1 micron processes for volume devices such as DDR and DDR2 memories. When Elpida takes over the 200-mm line, it will serve to expand new DRAM applications in the non-PC market.

Elpida has already expanded the production capacity of its 200-mm line from 28,000 wafers earlier this year to 37,500 wafers a month.

Elpida hopes to take advantage of its location close to customers of digital consumer electronics manufacturers in Japan. Japan is currently the fastest growing semiconductor market in the world, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

"In addition, the land purchased from NEC Hiroshima will provide us with room for future expansion as we continue to meet the industry demand for advanced process technology and volume availability of DRAM products," said Yukio Sakamoto, president of Elpida.

NEC Electronics will unify its two divisions offering production-related services such as prototyping and new process and equipment maintenance into a single company by July 1.

Assembly and testing operations of NEC Yamaguchi, Ltd. will be separated and transferred to NEC Semiconductors Kyushu, Ltd. by October.

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