Micron Taiwan accelerating expansion
BOOMING BUSINESS: Memory supply constraints would be even more severe in 2027 and 2028, prompting customers to sign long-term supply agreements, Micron said
By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter
Micron Memory Taiwan Co (台灣美光) yesterday said it is accelerating memorychip capacity expansion amid growing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven demand, with its accumulated investment in Taiwan reaching NT$1.6 trillion (US$50.2 billion) as of June.
The company’s investment in Taiwan has surged over the past four years, with recent spending equaling the total invested over the past 25 years, Micron Taiwan chairman Donghui Lu (盧東暉) told a media briefing in Taipei.
“The launch of ChatGPT and the outbreak of COVID triggered increasing demand for memory chips. Since then, demand has gathered pace rapidly, with only a brief pause in 2023 when a major downturn” hit the industry, Lu said.
From left, Micron Memory Taiwan Co vice president of frontend manufacturing operations Lian Bin Zhong, vice president of advanced packaging and testing operations Alex Chang, chairman Donghui Lu, Micron Technology Inc chief of staff to CEO Geok Hong Tan and Micron Memory Taiwan Co vice president of DRAM frontend technology and research Steve Tzeng pose for a photograph in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
At Micron Technology Inc’s earnings call in Boise, Idaho, on Wednesday, the company told investors that memory supply constraints would be even more severe next year and in 2028, prompting more customers to sign long-term supply agreements with the company.
In Taiwan, Micron is scaling manufacturing capacity across its four major sites to meet demand by leveraging the region’s comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem, Lu said.
In Taoyuan, it is transforming an older cleanroom into an advanced facility (Fab 11E), equipped with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems to produce next-generation DRAM chips, he said.
The upgraded fab is slated to begin operations late next year or in early 2028, Lu said.
The new fab’s advanced infrastructure is built to support next-generation lithography, making it fully capable of housing high numerical aperture EUV tools in the future, he said.
The company is building its second high-bandwidth memory chip packaging fab in Taichung’s Houli Science Park, Lu said.
The fab, which is expected to start volume production in the middle of next month, would be the US firm’s largest manufacturing site in Taiwan, he added.
Over the past 13 years, Micron has tripled its footprint in the Houli park and occupies 73 percent of the park, up from just 23 percent when it first established a presence there in 2013, he said.
The company also aims to commence production at its two fabs in Miaoli County in the second half of next year, he added.
As Micron expands its footprint beyond Taiwan, the company is collaborating with Taiwanese supply-chain partners — such as Marketech International Corp (帆宣), a facility monitor and control system provider — to construct cleanrooms and install equipment in Boise, Lu said
L&K Engineering Co (亞翔) is helping build a new advanced memory packaging fab in Singapore, while United Integrated Services Co (漢唐) has been tapped to construct Micron’s new fabs in Hiroshima, Japan, he said.
The company’s other key Taiwanese partners include cleanroom mechatronic engineering leader Acter Group Co (聖暉), advanced packaging equipment specialist Scientech Corp (辛耘) and automated equipment giant Mirle Automation Corp (盟立), Lu said.
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