Renesas brings forward recovery of auto microchip production
Hans Greimel
Automotive News | April 22, 2011 - 6:59 am EST
TOKYO -- Renesas Electronics Corp., the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, has bumped up the restart date for its last non-operational chip plant damaged in last month's earthquake.
Renesas now aims to resume production of 200-millimeter wafers, the chips most often used in auto applications, at its Naka factory on June 15, weeks ahead of its prior target date of early July. It begins test production there on April 23, the company said in a press release.
The company has also shifted automotive microcontroller production from Naka to its Tsugaru plant in northern Japan and an affiliate chip maker in Singapore, the company said.
When the Naka factory resumes 200-millimeter output in June, it will produce 3,000 wafers a month -- a fraction of the plant's pre-quake rate of 34,000 wafers a month, a spokeswoman said.
She could not comment on how much capacity has been shifted to other plants.
New timetable
By mid-May, the company aims to deliver a timetable for when chip production at both the plant's 200-millimeter and 300-millimeter wafer lines at Naka will return to pre-quake levels.
"The company is working in earnest with more than 2,000 additional support workers dispatched from outside Renesas Electronics companies to help speed up the resumption of production as much as possible," the company said.
More than 100 microcontrollers, or MCUs, can go into a modern vehicle, and Renesas controls about 41 percent of the global market -- with 90 percent of its global capacity based in Japan.
Renesas' Naka plant in northeastern Japan accounts for about 25 percent of its global automotive MCU capacity. It has been offline since the March 11 earthquake.
Naka has two wafer lines. One makes 200-millimeter wafers that are then cut into individual microcontroller chips, some of which end up in cars. The other makes 300-millimeter wafers, divided into so-called system-on chips used mostly in digital cameras and mobile phones.
The 200-millimeter chips are essential to everything from electronic parking brakes, pre-crash seat belts and engine control units to onboard entertainment systems, stability control and power steering.
Pinch point
Damage to plants in Japan has emerged as a key pinch point for global automakers. Tier 1 suppliers that rely on such chips as a sub-component can't supply carmakers without them.
Renesas' rival, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the world's second-biggest maker of automotive computer chips, has decided to permanently close its only plant in Japan due to earthquake damage and is racing to add capacity at other factories.
The Austin, Texas-based chipmaker had announced in 2009 it would shut down the factory by December this year. But after assessing damage, Freescale decided it wasn't worth repairing.
