During Merrill Lynch’s 6th Asia-Pacific Technology Conference Taiwanese DRAM maker Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) voiced intention to double its memory market share this year from 2.20% (1.70% according to iSuppli) in 2002.

The total capacity of PSC's 300mm fab is currently 12 000 wafers per month, utilizing 0.15 micron process for mass production. The company’s president Brian Shieh said that the facility is capable of manufacturing 20 000 to 25 000 of wafers per months, depending on demand. Earlier this month PSC signed partnership agreement with Elpida (see this and this news-stories), who is now able to buy up to 50% of PSC’s output. It was not indicated whether this concerns 50% of the output at the moment the agreement was signed, or up to 50% of any output PSC will ever be able to provide. PSC expects to implement 0.13 micron process technology during the second half of 2003.

Last year PSC was able to sell roughly 12 000 of wafers monthly, or over 70 million 256Mb-equivalent memory chips in total; with Elpida selling even half of this production this year the Taiwanese DRAM maker has a lot of chances to expand its market presence in 2003, though, at the end everything will depend on the memory market.

With numerous new platforms coming out this year as well as overall market trends towards more RAM memory to be installed in an average personal computer, the demand on DRAM products is likely to increase this year. We cannot be sure about any actual figures, but, keeping in mind that Elpida is still a very influential player on this arena, we can conclude that PSC’s intentions seem to be quite realistic at this point.