Chartered Semiconductor has signed an agreement for a $300 million term loan facility from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Under the conditions of the deal, Chartered is obliged to spend the loan with Japanese-based equipment companies. The loan supports the Phase 2 ramp of Fab 7. 

Spansion has confirmed that it has started production at its first 300mm fab, SP1, located in Aizu, Japan. SP1 is the first facility that has produced NOR flash memory employing 300mm wafers and initial ramp to 15,000 wafer starts per month, and uses Spansion’s 65nm ‘MirrorBit’ technology at a cost of $1.2 billion. 

Tower Semiconductor has said that it has secured used 200mm processing equipment from AMD and Intel amongst other non-specified chip manufacturers as part of its cost-effective strategy to ramp Fab2 beyond the current 24,000 wafer starts per month capacity.