Spansion Initiates Production of 300mm 65nm MirrorBit® Flash Memory at SP1 Wafer Fabrication Facility
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Ceremony Celebrating the World's First 300mm NOR Facility Held for Customers, Government and Community Officials
AIZUWAKAMATSU, Japan, Sept. 19 - Spansion Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSN), the world's largest pure-play provider of Flash memory solutions, today announced that it has started production of MirrorBit® technology at 65nm on 300mm wafers at its Spansion 1 (SP1) facility in Japan, with plans to ship to customers in high volume by the end of the year. To celebrate this milestone, Spansion held a dedication ceremony at SP1, which is the world's first 300mm NOR manufacturing facility and is integral to Spansion's strategy to produce leading-edge differentiated Flash memory solutions. During the ceremony, Spansion executives demonstrated working silicon of MirrorBit technology at 65nm and gave a tour of the fab. Photos from inside SP1 can be viewed on the press site of Spansion's website at http://spansion.com/about/news.html
The SP1 wafer manufacturing site is the first factory constructed by Spansion since becoming an independent company. Spansion has invested a significant portion of its planned $1.2 billion to construct and equip SP1. Spansion expects that this investment will produce capacity of 15,000-20,000 300mm wafers per month. With additional investment, Spansion has the capability to expand capacity to produce 30,000-40,000 wafers per month in the future. Spansion plans to produce leading-edge products at SP1, such as MirrorBit Eclipse(TM) devices, with products at 45nm expected in 2008. SP1 is co-located with Spansion's other fab in Aizu, JV3, and shares some resources with JV3 such as employees and facilities.
"We are on schedule for scaling MirrorBit technology to 45nm on 300mm wafers," said Bertrand Cambou, president and CEO, Spansion. "By leveraging this next-generation facility, and the cost and technology advantages of MirrorBit technology, we can deliver on our promise to bring more value to our customers and redefine the Flash memory industry."
From R&D to Production
Spansion started the 300mm development at its MirrorBit technology-dedicated R&D center in Silicon Valley, Submicron development Center (SDC). The 65nm MirrorBit technology process was developed at the SDC and has since been transferred to SP1 for production. The SDC is now currently running full flow development 300 millimeter wafers, 45nm technology, which is targeted for transfer to SP1 in 2008. The SDC is the only 300mm NOR Flash memory R&D facility in California.
MirrorBit® Technology
MirrorBit technology offers higher yields than traditional floating-gate NOR, and scales more easily to higher densities. When compared with floating-gate NOR technology, MirrorBit technology offers a simpler memory cell, which requires fewer critical manufacturing steps to produce than competing floating-gate technologies. As a result, MirrorBit technology can be produced at a lower overall wafer cost.
Spansion's aggressive process technology roadmap features the transition to a new process node each year. Spansion leverages a single technology, MirrorBit, in all of its fabs for efficient production of code and data storage solutions.
Spansion's wafer fab capabilities include:
o Spansion's SP1 300mm fab in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan for future 65nm and
45nm MirrorBit products
o Spansion's Fab 25 facility in Austin, Texas for 90nm and future 65nm
MirrorBit products
o Spansion's JV3 facility in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan for 110nm MirrorBit
capacity. This is Spansion's primary internal aluminum fab.
o Foundry relationship with TSMC for 110nm and 90nm MirrorBit technology
to help ensure capacity during times of peak demand
o Foundry relationship with Fujitsu for MirrorBit and/or floating-gate
aluminum metal layer products on 320nm, 230nm, and 200nm nodes
primarily for CSID (Consumer, Set Top Box, and Industrial) Division.
Key Facts about SP1
Building Structure: Three-story building
Site Area: 123,515m2 (SP1 + JV3)
Floor Area: 36,482m2
Area of Clean Room: 13,800m2
Start of Production: Sept 18
Products Produced: MirrorBit products at 65nm in 2007; MirrorBit products
at 45nm in 2008
Location: 2, Takaku-Kogyodanchi, Aizuwakamatsu-shi, Fukushima, 965-0060
General Manager: Mikio Suetake
Manufacturing Employees: Approximately 950 full-time employees (SP1 + JV3)
Spansion in Japan
Spansion Japan has approximately 2,000 employees, with Japan Headquarters in Kawasaki-city; its SP1 and JV-3 fabs in Aizu-Wakamatsu; and a design center near Nagoya-city. Spansion Japan serves the Japan market through the Fujitsu sales channel.
Webcast Replay of Press Conference
Spansion will post slides from its press conference being held at SP1 at 10:45 pm Pacific time on September 18, 2:45 p.m. in Aizu at the investor's section of the Spansion website- investor.spansion.com/overview.cfm. A replay of the press conference will be posted by September 20 at http://investor.spansion.com/overview.cfm
About Spansion
Spansion is a leading Flash memory solutions provider, dedicated to enabling, storing and protecting digital content in wireless, automotive, networking and consumer electronics applications. Spansion, previously a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu, is the largest company in the world dedicated exclusively to designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling Flash memory solutions. For more information, visit http://www.spansion.com/.
Source: Spansion Inc.
CONTACT: Michele Landry, +1-408-616-1170, or Koichi Wakamatsu,
+81 90 9377 5519, both of Spansion Inc.
Web site: http://www.spansion.com/
