Samsung to Start Manufacturing NAND Modules in US Plant

The South-Korean company Samsung is one of the world's most important manufacturers of NAND flash modules (as well as other types of memory chips as well), and it seems that, although its core production facilities are located in Korea, it's looking forward to opening new production lines elsewhere, amid an increase in the market demand for such products.

Thus, according to AP Digital, which is quoting a company spokesperson, the Korean giant has declared that it plans to begin mass production of NAND flash memory chips at its plant in the United States from December. The move is caused by the overwhelming market demand for such storage solutions, which are nowadays used in an increasingly higher number of portable multimedia devices, ranging from PMPs to mobile phones and digital cameras.

As James Chung, the aforementioned company spokesman, declares for AP, Samsung will be manufacturing NAND chips from 300-millimeter wafers using advanced 50-nanometer level process at the factory in Austin, Texas. Furthermore, it seems that the company will initially produce 20,000 wafers of 16-gigabit NAND flash chips a month and will gradually increase production to 60,000 wafers a month.

This is not the company's first venture into Austin, Texas, since Samsung already has one plant up and running in the respective area, which will continue its production, namely that of DRAM modules (especially since the market demand for these particular chips is also quite high). The second plant, however, is a lot larger (reportedly, the size of around nine football fields) and the Korean giant has made some serious investments there in order to achieve the high technological standards required for manufacturing DRAM modules.

Although the spokesperson has mentioned nothing related to this subject, it would seem that this move from Samsung also comes as a direct result of the crisis recorded earlier this year, when a power failure at the company's NAND production line in Korea brought about some pretty high financial losses, besides the fact that its image was pretty badly shaken.

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