Spansion starts flash memory output at 300-mm line

TOKYO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Microchip maker Spansion Inc SPSN.O said it had started commercial output at its production line that handles cost-efficient 300-mm silicon wafers in Japan, in a move to boost its price competitiveness.

Volume shipments from the new line, located in northern Japan's Fukushima prefecture, are slated to begin by December, California-based Spansion said on Wednesday.

Spansion, owned 13.6 percent by Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T) and 10.4 percent by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N), specialises in NOR-type flash memory chips, and the new production line is the world's first NOR flash output facility that processes 300-mm wafers.

Spansion last year said it planned to spend $1.2 billion to build a new flash memory production line in Japan with a capacity to process 15,000 to 20,000 units of 300-mm wafers a month.

The company said on Wednesday that a considerable part of that $1.2 billion had already been spent.

NOR-type chips are widely used to store software programmes in mobile phones and other electronics, as opposed to NAND-type flash memory chips, which are mainly used to store data-heavy files such as music in portable devices like Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.O) iPod.

Spansion is currently making NOR flash with circuitry width of 65 nanometres, and it plans to start output of 45-nanometre flash memory next year.

A nanometre is one billionth of a metre.

Finer circuitry decreases the size of a chip and enables data to be processed faster. It also cuts production costs per chip.

But costs for development and production facilities increase sharply as technology moves to ever-more intricate circuitry.