Intel and Micron Prepare to Open New NAND Factory

Since Intel and Micron have been collaborating on NAND Flash product development and manufacturing, it is not surprising to hear that they plan to open a new facility, especially considering that the opening of said facility is already more than two years overdue.

The collaboration between Intel and Micron begun to prove most fruitful when the two began to jointly develop NAND Flash products, like solid state drives (SSDs).

Still, what some consumers might not know is that the two companies have been collaborating for years and had planned to create a NAND fabrication facility years ago.

Said factory was meant to be opened sometime during the second half of 2008, but these plans were put on hold.

Now, with new products out in the open, and even despite the oversupply likely to plague 2011, the two have decided to resume those plans.

According to one of Digitimes' most recent reports, a new facility, located in Singapore, will be opened thanks to investments from both Micron and Intel.

It will begin volume production in the second quarter of 2011 and will start off making 100,000 wafers each month.

The fab will possibly be used to boost the capacity of ClearNAND products, ClearNAND being a new Micron device that combines NAND and error management in the same package.

This type of flash memory should be used for enterprise serves as much as for consumer applications, tablet PCs included.

Meanwhile, Samsung and Toshiba are also preparing to expand their capacities, by building the Line-16 and Fab 2 facilities, respectively. They should be ready as early as spring.

All in all, while there are so called 'fears' of flash memory oversupply in 2011, NAND Flash makers are still going to expand their manufacturing capabilities in anticipation of possible surge in demand.

The evolutions of SSDs and NAND used in mobile applications will likely determine how lucrative these decisions are.