Fab lab produces wafers in a flash
Fab lab produces wafers in a flash
Feb 24, 2005: Toshiba and SanDisk Corporation have proudly announced the completion of an advanced wafer fabrication facility, which will allow them to mass produce NAND flash memories on 300 mm wafers, to cope with the rising demand.
SanDisk describes NAND as a versatile non-volatile memory used in a wide range of digital electronic devices, and has the advantage of storing data even when the power supply is switched off.
The construction of the facility started in April 2004 and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2007.
Masashi Muromachi, the corporate vice president of Toshiba Corporation and the president & CEO of Toshiba's semiconductor company, said: "We are very happy to complete the construction of this new state-of-the art NAND flash fab in collaboration with SanDisk.
"We believe the NAND market will see annual growth rates over 30 percent from 2004 to 2008, from 700 billion yen, and we expect to see approximately 200% growth in bit storage capacity. We expect the new fab will assure our responsiveness to growing demand for higher-density NAND flash in an increasingly strong market."
Eli Harari, the president and chief executive officer of SanDisk corporation, added: "I am greatly honoured to represent SanDisk today in this milestone event. Fab 3 is a testimony to the success of the relationship between Toshiba and SanDisk, two highly innovative companies that have pioneered the flash technology that is enabling so many new applications in consumer electronics and mobile markets.
"With this large-scale investment, SanDisk is expressing our commitment to expanding NAND production at Toshiba and in Japan. We look forward to working toether to make Fab 3 achieve its full potential as a highly competitive, leading-edge manufacturing fab in the second half of this decade."
The 300mm-wafer fab is expected to start production in the second half of this year, and 10,000 wafers are expected to be delivered per month by late 2005.
Depending on how the market responds, 40,000 wafers a month could be delivered by 2007. But output could reach as high as 62,500, depending on how sales go.
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