Micron Technology has disclosed that a new NAND flash fabrication facility in Singapore, which it invests in with Intel, is scheduled to commence volume production in the second quarter of 2011. The pair originally planned to ramp up the joint venture fab in the second half of 2008.
Monthly capacity at the new fab is targeted at 100,000 wafers, according to Micron.
Fellow companies Samsung Electronics and Toshiba earlier revealed their expansion plans for 2011. Samsung's new facility (Line-16) mainly for NAND products is set to come online. Toshiba is constructing a new 12-inch NAND flash fab (Fab 5) with completion slated for spring.
Micron believes an oversupply situation is unlikely to occur in 2011 thanks to an increase in demand for smartphones, SSDs and tablet PCs. The company recently rolled out a new device dubbed ClearNAND that integrates NAND flash and the error management function in the same package.
Micron noted that ClearNAND is aimed for enterprise servers and consumer applications including tablet PCs.