Micron kills Idaho 200mm fab

IDAHO-BASED MEMORY MAKER MICRON said it is phasing out the manufacture of 200mm wafers at its Boise plant in response the the global collapse of demand for DRAM.

The company announced on Monday that it would reduce staff by 500 "in the near term" with more than 2,000 soulds losing their jobs "by the end of the company's fiscal year".

“We remained hopeful that the demand for these products would stabilise in the marketplace and start to improve as we moved into the spring. Unfortunately, a better environment has not materialised, and we are at a point where we wanted to let our employees and the community know in advance what will occur later this summer,” said Micron boss Steve Appleton.

The company will continue to work on R&D for 300mm wafers and says that it has sufficient capacity to make enough 200mm wafers to meet current levels of demand. µ