Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC), a Taiwanese pure-play foundry, is reportedly planning to collaborate with a startup company in Japan to manufacture magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) chips, utilizing the phase-2 construction of its 12-inch wafer fab that is currently being built in Japan.
According to a recent Nikkei report, PSMC will partner with Power Spin, the startup company that originated at Tohoku University in Japan and specializes in semiconductor technology research and development. This partnership is expected to take place in the first half of 2024 to reach large-scale MRAM production by 2029.
Tohoku University has devoted many years to studying MRAM, and Power Spin will provide PSMC with MRAM intellectual property. Following research and pilot manufacturing, PSMC plans to start mass production in 2029 and apply the technology to data centers for generative AI, according to the report.
PSMC stated in October 2023 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SBI Holdings to establish a 12-inch fab at the Second Northern Sendai Central Industrial Park in Ohira Village (Kurokawa District, Miyagi). Earlier in 2023, PSMC and SBI launched a foundry joint venture called JSMC. JSMC will be in charge of operating the facility.
In other news, TSMC, also building a 12-inch joint venture fab in Japan, is scheduled to inaugurate the plant on February 24. In Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, JASM, a 12-inch foundry in which TSMC, Sony, and Denso have invested, is now working on a specialty technology fab that will use 12-, 16-, 22-, and 28-nanometer process technologies. Mass production is planned for the fourth quarter of 2024.
