Infineon Technologies AG and Nanya Technology Corp. announced that they had signed an agreement to expand their development cooperation on DRAMs. The agreement provides for the joint development of advanced 60nm production technologies for 300mm wafers, starting September 2005.

“The extension of the successful strategic development partnership with Nanya towards the 60nm technology will pave the way to increase our DRAM manufacturing productivity significantly,” explained Kin Wah Loh, Member of the Infineon’s Management Board and President of Infineon’s Memory Products Business Group.

The cooperation is the extension of the existing co-development of the 90nm and 70nm production technologies and will help each partner expand its position in the DRAM market while sharing development costs.

The new production technology, jointly developed at Infineon’s Dresden site may be used in both companies and at their manufacturing joint venture Inotera Memories. Further collaboration on the development of 60nm reference products in Munich is also planned. Infineon and Nanya have together committed more than 100 people to work on this development project. The first 300mm wafer memory products using the new 60nm process is expected to leave the production line in 2008.

“The cooperation with Nanya proves the efficiency of Infineon’s partnership approach and gives us a competitive edge in the highly dynamic DRAM industry,” Mr. Kin Wah Loh indicated.

“The strategic partnership with Infineon on the 60nm technology will greatly enhance this camp’s competitiveness,” stated Dr. Jih Lien, President of Nanya Technologies. “Through the technology cooperation, we can mutually benefit from the cost and resource sharing for leading edge R&D.”

In addition to the joint development of advanced DRAM trench technologies, Infineon and Nanya are also partners in the manufacturing joint venture Inotera, situated in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Inotera focuses on the production of DRAM products and has in the meanwhile ramped to a capacity of more than 60 000 wafer starts per month turning it into one of the worldwide largest manufacturing facilities.