14 DAY TRIAL // Micron has just announced that the company acquired Canon's stake in Tech Semiconductor Singapore for approximately $121 million, the memory chip vendor becoming the sole owner of the venture and its 300mm wafer fabrication facilities.
Before this deal was signed, the Idaho-based semiconductor manufacturer held 90 percent of Tech Semiconductor, the remaining 10% being held by Canon.
Established in 1991, Tech Semiconductor became one of the largest volatile DRAM manufacturers in the industry, as the company has continued to improve its productions facilities over the years.
Currently, the fab has two production facilities, both of them using 300mm wafers, as well as a support facility, the so-called “Central Utility Plant.”
In 2010, Tech Semiconductor started manufacturing 2-gigabit DRAM chips on 300mm wafers using 50nm technology, which were then sent to Micron for being assembled, tested, packaged and finally sold.
As dynamic random access memory (DRAM), NAND Flash memory is Micron's core business, it's highly likely that Tech Semiconductor will continue to manufacture volatile memory even after the company's acquisition.
Lately, Micron started expanding its fabrication facilities to address the ever growing need for memory chips, the outfit recently starting production at the a new 300-mm NAND flash fab in Singapore.
The facility is part of an extension of Micron's joint venture with Intel, as the two companies have entered into an agreement to speed up NAND development and manufacturing.
Earlier today, Powerchip and Elpida have also announced that they entered a partnership that will effectively make the former become a PC DRAM foundry for Elpida.
As the Japanese company explained, the move would allow it to use its manufacturing facilities for producing Mobile DRAM parts, leaving Powerchip to take care of its volatile RAM business.
This could also be the case with Micron's decision to acquire the remaining 10% from Tech Semiconductor, as the foundry can now focus only on manufacturing PC DRAM chips while Micron's fabs could be steered towards other, more lucrative, businesses. (via EETimes)