For the first time, Toshiba may build a fab overseas.
In the 1980s, when Japanese semiconductor companies were internationally expansive with NEC building two fabs in Scotland and one fab in China, with Hitachi building a fab in a Germany and with Fujitsu building a fab in Durham, Toshiba was a notable stand-out keeping all its fabs on home soil.
Now things have changed with Toshiba Semiconductor CEO Hisao Tanaka saying that a decision will be made during Toshiba’s next financial year, which runs from 2015 to April 2016, on where it will build its next NAND fab and that it could be built abroad.
Tanaka points out that NAND flash rivals Samsung and Hynix both have fabs in China and, pressed on whether that is where Toshiba will go, Tanaka responded: “But Samsung has a plant in the United States, as well.”
Although Toshiba has never built a fab overseas, it has owned one.
Back in the 1970s, Toshiba bought a Silicon Valley company called Maruman. With it came a fab and Toshiba used it to build DRAMs.
One of the young executives sent out to run the fab, Tsuyoshi Kawanishi, later to be an outstanding CEO, recalls that yields and wafer throughput were half those of Japanese fabs and nothing he did improved them.
Eventually diffusion was closed down and the site was used for customer service, assembly, ASIC design, and a limited amount of gate array metallisation.
After that, although Toshiba regularly thought about foreign fab building, it never took the plunge. But now it may.
from News http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/toshiba-may-build-next-nand-fab-overseas-2014-12/
via Yuichun
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