Micron Executive Vice President of Global Operations Manish Bhatia stated that following the opening of the backend packaging and testing plant in Taichung, Micron will be capable of responding to customer’s needs more rapidly, and the production cycle will be shortened. At the same time, they will also focus on more valuable and advanced products.

Currently, the hottest product in the memory market is 3D NAND flash memory, and mass shipments of Micron’s 64-layer products are underway .The latest 96-layer NAND flash memory products will also go into mass production in the second half of this year. As a result, Micron is upgrading their production capacity for related products, and this will be the key for Micron to increase their profitability.

Taiwan Micron Vice President Liang Ming-cheng pointed out that 3D memory that utilizes TSV technology has specialized processing specifications, and there is no general-purpose equipment. All of the packaging and testing equipment has been independently developed by Micron; therefore, it cannot be outsourced. In the future after the new packaging and testing center begins to be utilized, it will be of assistance in expanding production capacity for 3D memory.

Following the movement from semiconductor manufacturing to 3D architecture, integrated manufacturing and testing of high-end ICs has become the main trend by and large. For instance, TSMC is continually expanding and increasing their technological capabilities in the domain of packaging and testing and Micron has established their own vertical production line which integrates manufacturing with packaging and testing, which is further evidence of this trend.

Hence it will be worth paying attention to whether or not this technology will bring about changes in the current semiconductor industry chain.

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)