IM Flash Singapore

Last updated
IM Flash Singapore
Company typeNon-public
IndustrySemiconductor integrated circuitry
Founded2007
Fate Intel's stake acquired by Micron Technology in April 2012. Company became wholly owned by Micron.
Headquarters Singapore

IM Flash Singapore LLP is a semiconductor company located in Singapore.

Contents

History

IM Flash SIngapore was founded in February 2007, by Micron Technology and Intel Corporation. The joint-venture was set up to produce NAND Flash memory for the 2 owners, and was the second site set up, [1] after the success of IM Flash Technologies. [2] It was located in Senoko, Singapore.

It was planned to begin operations in late 2008, but due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, all 800 employees were retrenched. [3] The plant, which had completed construction, was idled as the capital equipment had not moved into the plant.

In 2010, preparations were made to start production by end of that year, as the IM Flash Technologies plant had reached maximum capacity. [4] It officially opened in April 2011. [5]

On February 28, 2012, Micron and Intel announced that they would expand their NAND Flash memory joint venture relationship, [6] to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the joint venture. Intel would sell its stake in IM Flash Singapore to Micron, along with its share of IM Flash Technologies assets in Micron's Manassas, Virginia plant.

While the IMFS assets have been sold to Micron, there is an option in place for Micron to purchase Intel's interest in IMFT, per the disclosure in the company's 10Q SEC filing, 30 June 2012. [7] The deal was completed in 2019 where Intel received $1.5 billion and Micron will sell them 3D XPoint memory wafers until the end of 2020. [8]

As a result, IM Flash Singapore became wholly owned by Micron and became its fourth facility in Singapore. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flash memory</span> Electronic non-volatile computer storage device

Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use the same cell design, consisting of floating gate MOSFETs. They differ at the circuit level depending on whether the state of the bit line or word lines is pulled high or low: in NAND flash, the relationship between the bit line and the word lines resembles a NAND gate; in NOR flash, it resembles a NOR gate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">STMicroelectronics</span> Semiconductor device manufacturer

STMicroelectronics NV is a multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin. Incorporated in the Netherlands, its headquarters are in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland and it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the Euronext Paris and the Borsa Italiana in Milan. ST is the largest European semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. The company resulted from the merger of two government-owned semiconductor companies in 1987: Thomson Semiconducteurs of France and SGS Microelettronica of Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TSMC</span> Taiwanese semiconductor foundry company

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's second-most valuable semiconductor company, the world's largest dedicated independent ("pure-play") semiconductor foundry, and its country's largest company, with headquarters and main operations located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Although the central government of Taiwan is the largest individual shareholder, the majority of TSMC is owned by foreign investors. In 2023, the company was ranked 44th in the Forbes Global 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micron Technology</span> American company producing semiconductor devices

Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, including the Ballistix line of memory modules, are marketed under the Crucial brand. Micron and Intel together created IM Flash Technologies, which produced NAND flash memory. It owned Lexar between 2006 and 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SK Hynix</span> South Korean memory semiconductor supplier

SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. SK Hynix is one of the world's largest semiconductor vendors.

The transistor count is the number of transistors in an electronic device. It is the most common measure of integrated circuit complexity. The rate at which MOS transistor counts have increased generally follows Moore's law, which observes that transistor count doubles approximately every two years. However, being directly proportional to the area of a die, transistor count does not represent how advanced the corresponding manufacturing technology is. A better indication of this is transistor density which is the ratio of a semiconductor's transistor count to its die area.

The "22 nm" node is the process step following 32 nm in CMOS MOSFET semiconductor device fabrication. The typical half-pitch for a memory cell using the process is around 22 nm. It was first demonstrated by semiconductor companies for use in RAM memory in 2008. In 2010, Toshiba began shipping 24 nm flash memory chips, and Samsung Electronics began mass-producing 20 nm flash memory chips. The first consumer-level CPU deliveries using a 22 nm process started in April 2012 with the Intel Ivy Bridge processors.

Micron Memory Japan, K.K.(Japanese: マイクロンメモリジャパン株式会社, Micron Memory Japan Kabushiki-gaisha ) is a Japanese subsidiary of Micron Technology. It was formerly known as Elpida Memory, Inc. established in 1999 that developed, designed, manufactured and sold dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) products. It was also a semiconductor foundry. With headquarters in Yaesu, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, it was initially formed under the name NEC Hitachi Memory in 1999 by the merger of the Hitachi and NEC DRAM businesses. In the following year it took on the name Elpida. In 2003, Elpida took over the Mitsubishi DRAM business. In 2004, it listed its shares in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 2012, those shares were delisted as a result of its bankruptcy. In 2013, Elpida was acquired by Micron Technology. On February 28, 2014, Elpida changed its name to Micron Memory Japan and Elpida Akita changed its name to Micron Akita, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group</span> Association of electronic companies

The Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group is a consortium of technology companies working to develop open standards for NAND flash memory and devices that communicate with them. The formation of ONFI was announced at the Intel Developer Forum in March 2006.

Numonyx was a semiconductor company making flash memories, which was founded on March 31, 2008, by Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners. It was acquired by Micron Technology on February 9, 2010, for US$1.27 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IM Flash Technologies</span> Former Micron-Intel joint venture

IM Flash Technologies, LLC was the semiconductor company founded in January 2006, by Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. IM Flash produced 3D XPoint used in data centers and high end computers. It had a 300mm wafer fab in Lehi, Utah, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multi-level cell</span> Memory cell capable of storing more than a single bit of information

In electronics, a multi-level cell (MLC) is a memory cell capable of storing more than a single bit of information, compared to a single-level cell (SLC), which can store only one bit per memory cell. A memory cell typically consists of a single floating-gate MOSFET, thus multi-level cells reduce the number of MOSFETs required to store the same amount of data as single-level cells.

A three-dimensional integrated circuit is a MOS integrated circuit (IC) manufactured by stacking as many as 16 or more ICs and interconnecting them vertically using, for instance, through-silicon vias (TSVs) or Cu-Cu connections, so that they behave as a single device to achieve performance improvements at reduced power and smaller footprint than conventional two dimensional processes. The 3D IC is one of several 3D integration schemes that exploit the z-direction to achieve electrical performance benefits in microelectronics and nanoelectronics.

Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean semiconductor fabrication company located in Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park. It was incorporated in 1999 and is a joint venture between NXP Semiconductors and TSMC. Founded by Philips and EDB Investments, the plant was completed in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tower Semiconductor</span> Integrated circuit manufacturer

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, Silicon Photonics, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power management (BCD), and non-volatile memory (NVM) as well as MEMS capabilities. Tower Semiconductor also owns 51% of TPSCo, an enterprise with Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan (NTCJ).

Crossbar is a company based in Santa Clara, California. Crossbar develops a class of non-volatile resistive random-access memory (RRAM) technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3D XPoint</span> Discontinued computer memory type

3D XPoint is a discontinued non-volatile memory (NVM) technology developed jointly by Intel and Micron Technology. It was announced in July 2015 and was available on the open market under the brand name Optane (Intel) from April 2017 to July 2022. Bit storage is based on a change of bulk resistance, in conjunction with a stackable cross-grid data access array, using a phenomenon known as Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS). Initial prices are less than dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) but more than flash memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsinghua Unigroup</span> Chinese semiconductor company

Tsinghua Unigroup Co., Ltd. is a state-owned Chinese technology and semiconductor manufacturer that also supplies digital infrastructure and services to domestic and global markets. Based in Beijing, it is among the country's largest technology conglomerates; subsidiaries include UNISOC, China's largest mobile phone chip designer. Other core subsidies design and manufacture network equipment and server and storage products, and produce system integration, network security and software applications.

References

  1. "Foreigners help create jobs for S'poreans: PM Lee". yahoo.com. 2011-04-22. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  2. "Intel to sell stake in flash chip plants back to Micron". reuters.com. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  3. 800 workers retrenched after wafer fab plan collapse (link to a copy found on the web Archived 2016-01-30 at the Wayback Machine )
  4. Yeo, Vivian. "IM Flash readies S'pore facility". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  5. Murray, Matthew (April 21, 2011). "Intel, Micron Open Singapore NAND Flash Plant". PCMag. Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  6. "Intel and Micron team up on new storage technologies". zdnet.com. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  7. "Intel, Micron Update Nand Flash Memory Joint Venture". www.sec.gov. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2024-08-01.
  8. 1 2 "Micron to buy Intel's stake in joint venture IM Flash Technologies". Yahoo Finance. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2024-08-01.