Phison Electronics, a Taiwan-based design house of NAND flash controller ICs, has stepped into controller ICs of high-speed data transfer for use in mobile devices including SSDs (sold-state drives), USB 3.0 and eMMC and expects such controller ICs to be the main source of growth in its 2012 revenues, according to the company.

Phison shipped 556 million controller ICs used in flash cards, USB 2.0/3.0 flash drives, eMMC and SSDs in 2011.

Phison has cooperated with Kingston Technology to offer eMMC interface modules for use in smartphones offered by HTC and other vendors, the company indicated. In addition, Phison's SSD controller ICs have been adopted for Acer's Ultrabook PCs, the company noted.

Phison started volume production of eMMC controller ICs based on 0.11-micron process at fabs of United Microelectronics Corp. in the second half of 2011 and will upgrade the production to 55nm process in the second quarter of 2012, the company pointed out.

Phison began 90nm-based production of USB 3.0 controller ICs in the second half of 2011, with volume production to kick off in the first quarter of 2012 and manufacturing process to be upgraded to 55nm later, the company indicated.

Phison has reported revenues of NT$2.721 billion (US$89.8 million) for December 2011, decreasing by 7.11% on month but increasing by 19.07% on year, while its 2011 revenues of NT$32.343 billion rose by 1.72% from 2010.