Micron closes 200mm operations at Boise fab

Micron has been hit hard by plummeting demand for memory

Semiconductor firm Micron Technology is to phase out its 200mm wafer manufacturing operations at its fabrication plant in Boise, Idaho owing to dwindling demand for 200mm speciality DRAM products.

Micron will shed around 500 jobs at the plant in the short-term, but up to 2,000 jobs could be cut by the end of the company's fiscal year. Despite the closure, the firm has assured customers that it still has sufficient manufacturing capacity, and does not expect any disruption in supply.

"We remained hopeful that the demand for these products would stabilise in the marketplace and start to improve as we moved into the spring," said Steve Appleton, chairman and chief executive of Micron.

"Unfortunately a better environment has not materialised, and we are at a point where we wanted to let our employees and the community know in advance what will occur later this summer."

The company said that it will continue its 300mm research and development fabrication facility at the Boise site, and perform a variety of other activities, including reticle manufacturing, product design and support, quality assurance, systems integration and related manufacturing, corporate and general services.

Micron has been hit hard by plummeting demand for memory. The company announced in October that it would be cutting around 3,000 employees and shutting down one of its primary Nand memory chip plants, also in Boise. The latest news does not form part of the original announcement.

Micron expects that cash restructuring charges will total approximately $50m (£34m), which will generate a gross annualised operating cash benefit of $150m (£103m), resulting in a neutral net operating cash flow effect for the 2009 fiscal year.

Micron has pledged to do its best to help those employees affected by the cuts in providing severance and outplacement services.