Toshiba repositions 200mm wafer lines, to strengthen cost competitiveness

Toshiba Corporation that it is enhancing the productivity and cost competitiveness of its memory business by scaling back production on the 200mm wafer lines at its Yokkaichi Operations.

A smaller 200mm wafer operation, with approximately 60 per cent of current capacity, will continue to produce flash memories for the multi chip package, a market segment that has been experiencing high growth.

The repositioning also includes the end of production by FlashVision, Ltd. a joint venture between Toshiba and its NAND flash memory production partner, SanDisk Corporation, that manages part of NAND flash memory fabrication on the 200mm wafer lines.

Toshiba will buy out part of the production equipment owned by FlashVision and utilize it at Yokkaichi Operations, or other Toshiba sites, and FlashVision will sell the remaining equipment to third parties.

"We are determined to remain a world leader in the NAND flash memory business", said  Shozo Saito, corporate senior vice president of Toshiba Corporation and president and CEO of Toshiba Semiconductor Company. "By constant upward transitions, and reassigning production, we will continue to improve our costs. Utilising 200mm wafer equipment in other facilities also contributes to improved production efficiency for our overall semiconductor business."

The NAND flash memory market continues to grow, and increased unit demand for higher density memories is expected for application in new generations of mobile phones and portable media players, and for emerging applications such as solid state drive for notebook PCs.

Toshiba intends to strengthen cost competitiveness and meet market needs by combining continued proactive capital investments in expansion of production capacity at 300mm wafer line beyond that of the decommissioned 200mm wafer lines, and in the early development of advanced process technology and next generation memories.