Toshiba and SanDisk today celebrated with a traditional ceremony and reception the opening of Fab 4, the latest 300mm wafer fabrication facility at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi Operations, in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Fab 4 is expected to start mass production in December 2007 and reach a production capacity of 80,000 wafers a month in the second half of CY2008. The fab still has space to expand capacity, and further investment could take output to 210,000 wafers per month, in response to the projected increase in future market demand. Fab 4 will employ cutting-edge 56-nanometer (nm)1 process technology at start-up, and plans call for a gradual transition to 43 nm technology, starting from March 2008.
Fab 4 is designed to minimize any impact on operations from natural disasters. The new fab will allow Toshiba and SanDisk to deploy the latest advances in process technology and multi-level cell technology and support the companies in further enhancing competitiveness and securing continued leadership in the NAND flash memory market.
