SanDisk & Toshiba plan Fab 5 for 2009
Fab 3, its first 300mm facility, had recently reached full capacity at approximately 150,000 wafer starts per month (wspm). The ramp of Fab 4, its latest 300mm facility, would be ramped as fast as possible (flash) while tapping into other NAND suppliers including Hynix, as its internal capacity is not expected to meet demand. Fab 4 started ramping in September 2007.
Fab 4 is the largest 300mm fab currently being ramped with capacity put at over 210,000wspm when fully utilised.
To continue increasing bit growth at Fab 3, the company said that it would continue to shift production to its 56nm process for both 8-gigabit and 16-gigabit devices with the expectation that in excess of 75 percent for production would be at the 56nm node. The next technology migration will be the 43nm node in the Q2 2008 timeframe. However, bit growth will be boosted by the ramp of 3X cell transition for a portion of Fab 3 ramp.
SanDisk invested US$324 million in Fabs 3 and 4 and US$82 million in property and equipment in the last quarter and is planning US$200 million in investment in Fab 4 in the fourth quarter. Executives at SanDisk believe that the overcapacity issues may have less impact in 2008 as 200mm fabs, especially those owned by Hynix and Samsung, become uncompetitive and retired from NAND and DRAM production.
