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SanDisk continue Technology and Market Leadership
Mark Peters : August 20th 2006 - 15:09 CET
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 Toshiba & SanDisk Continue Technology and Market Leadership : Toshiba Corporation and SanDisk Corporation announced today that, further to definitive agreements that the companies entered into in July 2006, construction has started of Fab 4, a 300-millimeter (mm) wafer fab, in Yokkaichi, in Mie Prefecture, Japan. The NAND flash memory market is growing fast, on healthy growth in a wide range of digital electronic applications, including MP3 music players, mobile phones and several kinds of memory cards. Toshiba and SanDisk started operation of a state-of-the-art 300-millimeter wafer fab, Fab 3, in summer 2005, at Yokkaichi Operations, and have boosted the facility’s capacity to meet market demand.
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 NAND flash memory products
Today’s start of construction reflects the need for a new facility, in parallel with expansion of Fab 3, in order to meet anticipated demand for NAND flash memory products in 2008 and beyond. Investment in Fab 4 over the two years from April 2006 to March 2008 is expected to reach about 300 billion yen. Toshiba will fund construction of the building and Flash Alliance, Ltd., a new joint venture between Toshiba and SanDisk for Fab 4, will fund the fab’s advanced manufacturing equipment. The production output from Fab 4 will be equally shared between Toshiba and SanDisk.
67,500 wafers a month
Fab 4 is expected to come on line in the fourth quarter (Oct-Dec) of 2007, with an initial capacity of 2,500 wafers a month. It is currently estimated that the capacity of 67,500 wafers a month will be reached by the fourth quarter of 2008. At the time of production start-up, Fab 4 is intended to employ cutting-edge 56-nanometer (nm) process technology and to subsequently migrate to finer geometries.
Fab 4 - Earthquake-absorbing structure
In order to limit impact on operations from natural disasters, Fab 4 will adopt the latest earthquake-absorbing structure that is expected to dampen quake force by almost two-thirds. It will also deploy superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) that is designed to be triggered instantaneously by any sudden, momentary loss of power supply, from a lightning strike for example, to prevent any impact on production.
NAND flash memory market
Through construction of Fab 4, Toshiba and SanDisk will continue to expand production capacity. Combined with advanced process technology and multi-level cell technology, this expansion is expected to allow the companies to further enhance their competitiveness and secure continued leadership in the NAND flash memory market.
Outline of Fab 4 at Yokkaichi Operations
- Structure of Building: Steel frame concrete, five stories (two CR stories)
- Building Area: approx. 35,500m2
- Floor Area: approx. 181,000m2
- Area of Clean Room: approx. 48,800m2
- Start Construction: August, 2006
- Completion of Building: July 2007 (plan)
- Start Production: 4Q (October – December), 2007(plan)
Outline of Yokkaichi Operations
- Location: 800 Yamanoisshiki-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Prefecture, Japan
- Established: 1992
- General Manager: Noriyoshi Tozawa
- Employees: Approx. 2,200
- Total Site Area: Approx. 312,300m2
- Total Floor Area: Approx. 260,000m2 (excluding new 300mm facility Fab 4)
Outline of Flash Alliance, Ltd.
- Location: 800 Yamanoisshiki-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Prefecture, Japan
- Established: July, 2006
- President: Yasuo Naruke
- Capitalization: 3 million yen
- Holding: Toshiba: 50.1%, SanDisk: 49.9%
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