The Elpida Group consists of Elpida and 12 consolidated subsidiaries, which work together to develop, design, manufacture and sell DRAM products.
Elpida Memory, Inc.
Elpida oversees all group operations (business management, finance, general affairs, legal, marketing, production control, etc.). It also has charge of DRAM product development & design, wafer processing, sales to domestic customers and the supply of products to its overseas sales subsidiaries.
Listed below are various domestic and overseas business locations that handle development, design, manufacture and sales activities.
Development Bases
Development Center
The Development Center, Elpida's core research and development center, oversees fundamental technology research, DRAM product circuit/layout design and its evaluation and analysis, product development and other activities.
Hiroshima Development Center
The Hiroshima Development Center is responsible for the development of manufacturing processes. This Center is located on the site of the Hiroshima Plant.
Kansai Design Center
The Kansai Design Center designs DRAM chips.
Tohoku Design Center
The Tohoku Design Center designs DRAM chips. This Center is located on the site of Akita Elpida Memory, Inc.
Production Bases: Front-End Process
Hiroshima Plant
The Hiroshima Plant is the core manufacturing facility in charge of wafer processing. The Plant focuses mainly on Premier DRAM fabrication. As of May 2009 the Plant has a monthly production capacity of 120,000 wafers.
Affiliate Company
Rexchip Electronics Corporation
Rexchip Electronics Corporation (Rexchip) is a DRAM manufacturing joint venture with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC). Rexchip focuses on PC DRAM fabrication. As of May 2009 Rexchip has a monthly production capacity of 75,000 wafers.
Business Relation
Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation
Elpida outsources PC DRAM fabrication to PSC. PSC manufactures DRAMs based on Elpida's process technologies. Elpida can procure up to 50% of PSC's DRAM production volume.
Affiliate Company
Tera Probe, Inc. (Tera Probe), a joint venture of Elpida, Kingston Technology Japan, LLC, Powertech Technology Inc. and Advantest Corporation, is Japan's leading specialist in semiconductor wafer testing. Elpida outsources probe testing to Tera Probe. Tera Probe runs its operations for Elpida inside Elpida's Hiroshima Plant.
Production Bases: Back-End Process
Affiliate Company
Akita Elpida handles the technology development, packaging and testing of advanced packages such as MCP* and PoP*. As of March 2009 Akita Elpida has a monthly production capacity of 13 million packages (single-die package equivalent) .
*1 MCP or Multi Chip Package: The stacking together of multiple semiconductor chips within a surface-mount package.
*2 PoP or Package on Package: The stacking of multiple flat surface-mount packages (such as BGA or Ball Grid Array).
Business Relation
Elpida outsources its packaging and testing of mainly PC DRAMs to Powertech Technology Inc. (Taiwan).
Business Relation
Walton Advanced Engineering, Inc.
Elpida outsources its packing and testing of mainly DRAMs for digital consumer electronics to Walton Advanced Engineering, Inc (Taiwan).
Sales Bases
Elpida has established sales offices in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Also, to shorten the distance between Elpida and its customers and enable quick, flexible technology support, System Technology Labs operated by Elpida Memory (Europe) Sàrl (Switzerland) and Elpida Memory (USA) Inc. provide circuit simulation.