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Qimonda AG has announced that it will ramp down DRAM production at its 300mm fab in Richmond, Virginia with the loss of approximately 1,500 jobs. The loss-making memory manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy in Germany and does not currently have the capital to convert its Richmond fab to its ‘Buried Wordline’ technology and migrate to smaller geometries. Qimonda had previously announced that its 200mm fab located in Richmond would close as it became uncompetitive, resulting in the final withdrawal of semiconductor manufacturing for the company in the U.S. No official timeline was given for the closure of the 300mm fab. Read more >>

As a consequence of aggressive inventory reduction strategies by customers of Chartered Semiconductor, the foundry has guided fab utilization rates could fall to 34% (Guidance 37%, +/- 3%) in the first quarter of 2009. Utilization rates declined rapidly in the fourth quarter of 2008 as foundry customers reacted to the global slowdown in demand for semiconductors. The overall utilization rate of Chartered’s fabs declined to 59% compared to 85% in the third quarter of 2008. Read more >>

Renesas Technology is to undertake a major restructuring of its semiconductor manufacturing operations as well as a workforce reduction of approximately 2,500 tempory workers to reduce operating costs. Renesas expects a substantial reduction in net sales and income for its FY2009. Read more >>

Significant losses generated in its semiconductor and TFT-LCD businesses have forced Toshiba Corporation to make sweeping restructuring plans as the global downturn and continued poor demand for its electronic products takes hold. The company expects to cut 4,500 jobs across enterprises, delay the construction of two previously announced 300mm fabs and reduce capital spending for FY2009 by 60% compared with 2008 in an effort to save approximately US$3.3 billion in operating costs. Read more >>

Texas Instruments is not expecting a recovery in demand for its range of semiconductors in 2009 and has started to take aggressive actions to reduce cost and lower inventory levels to better match customer demand, which it expects to deteriorate further in the coming year. TI expects to cut its workforce by 12% through direct layoffs of approximately 1,800 workers and approximately 1,600 through voluntary retirements and departures. Average fab utilizations are expected to fall to approximately 33% in the first quarter of 2009, down from 67% in the third quarter of 2008. According to TI, fab utilization rates are below those recorded in the last major downturn in 2001, when rates fell to the low 40% range. Read more >>

ON Semiconductor is increasing the number of fabs it plans to close in 2009 as part of a new round of cost reduction measures during the current industry downturn. In 2008, the company announced the planned closure of three legacy fabs, a 100mm, 120mm and a 150mm fab that would take place by the end of 2009. The company now plans to bring these closures forward to mid-2009 as well as evaluating a fourth front-end fab for closure by the end of 2009. Read more >>

FM Approvals has granted Entegris FM4911 certification for its ‘Spectra’ 300mm Front Opening Unified Pod, the first supplier to attain the fire safety certification, according to Entegris. The FOUP passed all tests required and is now claimed to be able to limit the spread of a potential cleanroom fire and damge from smoke. The certification could lead to fabs being able to reduce insurance rates, Entegris said. Read more >>

Atmel Corporation has completed the sale and transfer of its fab in Heilbronn, Germany to Tejas Silicon Holdings (UK) Limited, reducing its fab count to two at the end of 2008. Tejas will fabricate various ICs for Atmel at the facility over the next three years under a new foundry supply contract. Read more >>

As can be seen from the list below, the most popular 10 news stories had a memory theme running through the majority, with Micron and Qimonda appearing the most. Market research firm, iSuppli took top honours with a memory based market share report, that had Micron in the title, while it was interesting to see that VLSI Research was placed seventh with is 2007 equipment supplier rankings report, which has become a regular favourite over the years. Read more >>

Another part of the jigsaw to secure the future of AMD’s manufacturing arm under the temporary name of ‘The Foundry Company’ has been placed with the news that the State of New York has voted to approve the transfer of development incentives to the new foundry with respect to a planned 300mm fab (Fab-4X) to be built in the Luther Forrest Technology Park, in upstate New York. The range of incentives has been estimated at approximately US$1.2 billion. Read more >>