NEC Corp has started full-scale production at its second semiconductor plant in China, Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co Ltd. The plant, in which NEC has invested $1.2bn, has been producing wafers on an experimental basis since February, and is now producing 5,000 wafers a month. It aims to double its output by November and to produce 20,000 wafers a month by the end of 2000. The facility’s main product is 64MB DRAMs which it started shipping in July. By the end of September it had shipped five million of the memory chips, the company said. The plant has also started production of logic ICs on a trial basis prior to starting shipments in January. NEC is currently transferring technology to the plant for mass-production of wafers with a 0.35-micron design rule.
