Mitsubishi buys Renesas fab
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An agreement between Mitsubishi Electric and Renesas will see the former acquire the buildings and associated manufacturing facilities of Renesas’ Kumamoto factory.
The move comes almost five years after Mitsubishi transferred its system lsi and memory interests to Renesas – its joint venture with Hitachi. Since then, Mitsubishi has concentrated on power and high frequency optical devices.
However, increasing demand for energy saving products has seen the inverter controller equipment market grow and Mitsubishi has been looking for additional wafer production capabilities. Specifically, says the company, its has been working to increase 6in wafer capacity at its Kumamoto site, as well moving products to 8inch wafers.
Since Renesas withdrew from the flash market in December 2005, its Kumamoto fab has been operating under capacity. As the fab is colocated with Mitsubishi’s power device facility and as the Renesas fab had already been commissioned to manufacture Mitsubishi’s power devices on 8in wafers, Mitsubishi concluded that it would be best to acquire the facilities.