Samsung opens world's biggest chip plant in Texas
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung ElectronicsÂ opened a $3.5 billion memory chip factory in Austin Thursday, the biggest such plant in Texas. The world's largest memory chip maker will produce NAND flash memory, which is used to store data in a wide range of products, from digital cameras to iPods, at the facility. Production at the factory will start in the second half of this year, and the first product to be made there will be 16Gb NAND flash chips, using a 50-nanometer production process. Such new factories ensure plentiful supply for the memory chip industry, which is important for keeping prices down for users as more and more people buy consumer electronics that let them capture, share and store pictures, songs and other data. The new chip facility covers the area of nine football fields, and will reach an output of 60,000 wafers per month by 2008. Hundreds of memory chips can be made on one silicon wafer. It will be among the most advanced memory chip plants in the U.S. when it starts churning out 50-nanometer chips later this year. There are about three to six atoms in a nanometer, depending on the type of atom, and it describes the smallest size of features on a chip. Currently, 65-nanometers is considered cutting edge, though Intel makes some products using 45-nanometer technology. Samsung has hired 1,600 employees for the factory. Samsung Electronics currently operates 15 semiconductor production lines globally, including two factories in Texas.
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Samsung Electronics has developed a chip-manufacturing technique able to significantly increase the amount of music, pictures, videos, and other data people can store in future iPods, iPhones, and other devices.The world&#39;s largest memory chip maker showed off a 64Gb multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chip made with an entirely new 30-nanometer production technology. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, and the measure refers to the average size of the smallest features on the chip. The manufacturing breakthrough, which Samsung calls self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT), will enable the company to greatly increase the storage capacity of new NAND flash memory chips once the technology is in commercial production.For example, 16 of the 64Gb chips can be combined in a memory card for 128GB of storage space, enough for 80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files, the company said in a statement.Even more important for users, Samsung was able to make the technology leap without requiring certain expensive new chip making equipment. While moves to smaller production technologies often require investment in expensive new photolithography equipment, the company was able to use current photolithography gear to etch circuits on the silicon wafers. That should ensure low production costs and reasonable prices for end-users.SaDPT technology uses two pattern transfers to create the circuit design of each chip. The first transfer spaces the circuits widely apart, then the second transfer uses that space between the circuits to add another circuit, with the result that the circuitry is more densely packed together.Samsung has applied for 30 patents related to the new 64Gb flash chip, and said it also created a 32Gb chip with the same production technology. The company expects to begin mass production of 64Gb flash chips with its 30nm manufacturing technology in 2009.
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In the latest display of its manufacturing might, Intel Corp. is opening a new $3 billion factory in Arizona, widening its lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the industry's switch to a new chip-making technique.
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Infineon Technologies AG, Europe&#39;s second-largest maker of semiconductors, plans to invest about $1 billion in a new factory in Malaysia to expand its automotive chip business and be closer to customers in the region.
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Samsung Electronics, the world&#39;s second largest computer chip manufacturer, yesterday said that it would invest Won25,000bn ($24bn) in its semiconductor business by 2010 to generate
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InfoWorld - Samsung Electronics has developed a chip-manufacturing technique able to significantly increase the amount of music, pictures, videos, and other data people can store in future iPods, iPhones, and other devices.
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Germany's biggest chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG on Tuesday launched a $1 billion power semiconductor plant in Malaysia, marking its first foray into Asia.
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(InfoWorld) - LG Electronics Inc. officially opened a large-scale electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing complex near Moscow on Tuesday. The South Korean company invested US$150 million in the complex, which will turn out 500,000 digital TVs, 700,000 washing machines, 200,000 refrigerators and 260,000 home theater systems annually, according to LG's plans. Further plans call for production of each product to rise to 1 million units annually by 2008. The complex is located in Ruza, which is west of Moscow and near to the E30 highway that runs from Moscow through eastern Europe to Germany. LG, which claims a leading market share in Russia for several products including TVs, audio equipment, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, video components, DVDs and optical storage, is hoping the new complex will help it expand business in Russia and eastern Europe. The company also operates factories in Poland that produce digital TVs and refrigerators. In June, LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. began construction of a factory in Wroclaw, Poland. The plant will take LCD (liquid crystal display) panels produced at a factory in South Korea and add additional components, including backlights and driver chips, to produce a finished LCD module. The finished modules will then be ready to be combined with other components such as tuners, power supplies and cases to form finished televisions. The LCD module plant is scheduled to begin mass production in March next year. The modules will be used in flat-panel TVs for the European market. REFERENCES: LG.Philips breaks ground on LCD module plant in Poland, Jun. 15, 2006
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory  technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's  first 1Gigabit (Gb) DDR2 DRAM (dynamic random access memory) using 60  nanometer (nm)--class process technology.
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South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chipmaker, said it would invest some 24 billion dollars in building new chip production lines over the next six years.
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Samsung Electronics Co. has made a breakthrough in semiconductor technology by developing the world&#39;s first two-gigabyte double-data-rate dynamic random access memory chip using existing technology.
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Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, announced better-than-expected results for 2004 and a positive outlook for 2005, in a boost to the struggling global IT sector.
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HONG KONG -- Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's largest corporation, joined Microsoft Corp. on Monday in launching the first mobile phone in Asia and Europe to use high-speed HSDPA wireless technology.
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Samsung Electronics Co., the worldâs largest maker of flat panels used in televisions and monitors, said it will begin building its newest liquid-crystal-display plant in anticipation of rising demand for LCD televisions.
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Samsung Electronics Co., the world&#39;s second-largest semiconductor maker, said it expects global chip sales next year to grow at half of this year&#39;s pace on increased supply from new plants coming online.
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Infineon, Europe&#39;s second-largest chipmaker, yesterday announced that it would invest $1bn in a new plant in Malaysia in a move to boost its capacities for making chips used in the automotive industry.
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South Korea's Samsung Corporation wins the contract to build the world's tallest building, the Burj Tower in Dubai.