[photopress:wuxicity.jpg,full,alignright]Hynix Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics plan to start making memory chips on advanced production lines at a $2 billion chip plant in China next week. The project, which was inaugurated in November of 2004, will be one of the most advanced chip facilities in China, producing DRAM (dynamic RAM) as well as NAND flash memory chips on 300-millimeter silicon wafers.
Hynix ST Semiconductor, which is the name of the joint venture, was built in Wuxi City, a few hours from Shanghai. The company is just the second in China to start producing chips on 300mm silicon wafers, from which thousands of chips can be made. The 300mm technology isn’t easy to import into China due to U.S. export restrictions on machinery with the potential to produce items used by China’s military, such as advanced chips used in missile guidance systems.
The joint venture company is 67 percent owned by Hynix and 33 percent by STMicro. The new plant will feed memory chips to PC and consumer electronics makers in China.
Source: Infoworld
