Micron Technology Inc. is negotiating to take over Toshiba Corp.'s Dominion Semiconductor fab in Manassas, Va., according to well-placed sources.
That fab isn't slated to be included in any DRAM joint venture the Japanese firm works out with Infineon Technologies AG, the sources said.
Infineon already has a major DRAM fab in Virginia, White Oak Semiconductor Co. outside Richmond. If the Infineon-Toshiba DRAM joint venture goes through, the Dominion Semiconductorfab in the same state would be considered a redundant facility.
Ulrich Schumacher, president of Infineon, declined to comment on the report when contacted at festivities marking the production launch of the firm's first 300mm wafer fab in Dresden, Germany.
A Micron spokesman reiterated the firm's statement on possible fab acquisitions: "We are talking to many companies but cannot make any comment on the nature of these discussions."
Toshiba's Dominion Semiconductor fab has two segments -- one making DRAMs and a second making NAND flash memory chips as part of a joint venture with SanDisk Corp. Knowledgeable sources said Toshiba would transfer the flash production back to its fabs in Japan, freeing up the second stage of the Manassas fab for Micron to make DRAMs there as well.
It wasn't known whether Micron is talking with Toshiba for an outright acquisition of the Virginia fab or whether it would be a joint venture operation, similar to Micron's arrangement in Singapore partnering with Hewlett-Packard and Canon.
The negotiations could be viewed as surprising given that Micron alreadyis talking with Hynix Semiconductor Inc. to take over the Korean firm's fabs. It isn't clear if Micron is hedging its bets in all these negotiations or if the DRAM producer may actually end up gaining control over the bevy of fabs.
Dominion Semiconductor has had a checkered history of joint ventures in its brief lifetime. Originally it was launched as a partnership between Toshiba and IBM Corp. The computer firm
subsequently bowed out of the joint venture in cutting back sharply its own DRAM production operations. The vacant second stage of the fab was then equipped as part of the joint venture with SanDisk to make NAND flash memory.
