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Hynix starts construction of $4 billion NAND fab in Cheongju, Korea |
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Apr 26, 2007 at 03:18 PM |
 Hynix Semiconductor has held a groundbreaking for the construction of its third 300mm fab, dubbed M11, at its two fab complex in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Korea at a cost of approximately $4 billion U.S. dollars.
Mr. Jong-kap Kim, Chairman and CEO of Hynix, said, "Groundbreaking of M11 has significant meaning amid growing competition for12-inch facilities in the semiconductor industry. M11 will lay the first stone for Hynix to leap into the best semiconductor manufacturer, securing competitiveness for sustainable growth."
M11 will be primarily dedicated to high-density NAND flash memory production, Hynix said. However, Hynix has recently shifted considerable capacity at other fabs away from NAND production and back to DRAM due to the severe price erosion of NAND.
Hynix expects the fab to be completed in the second quarter of 2008 and to commence volume production in the third quarter using a sub-48nm NAND process.
Considering the cost of M11 is similar to that of Toshiba's Fab 4 NAND flash facility, it is possible that the M11 capacity would be approximately 200,000wspm (wafer starts per month) when fully utilized.
Originally, Hynix had wanted to build the new fab at reserved space at its Ichon fab complex but environmental protests and local government laws prevented this from happening. Concern in Korea was that Hynix would instead build more fabs in China starting with M11.
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