Memory prices have fallen sharply, but micron is expanding capacity for DDR5

In an earnings call with investors and financial analysts earlier this week, micron expressed confidence in its long-term future and strong demand for its products, and outlined plans to expand capacity and move quickly to more advanced technology.

Micron said, "we believe the long-term demand outlook for memory and storage is compelling, driven by broad long-term trends such as artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, 5G and the Internet of things," said Sanjay Mehrotra, micron's chief executive."Micron is well positioned to capitalize on these trends, innovative products, responsive supply chains, and build relationships with customers around the world."

DRAM prices have fallen sharply in recent quarters as supply has outstripped demand.To cut costs and prepare for new applications for memory, DRAM manufacturers are actively switching to newer processes.At the same time, while acknowledging that they need to balance supply and demand for DRAM, they actually have aggressive capacity expansion plans because they need more cleanrooms for upcoming manufacturing technologies.

Meguiar's has an active roadmap for manufacturing processes and is now adding four 10-nanometer nodes (out of a total of six 10-nanometer technologies) as it studies the eventual transition to extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL).Meguiar's is also expanding its production capacity to produce next-generation storage for next-generation applications -- 32 GB of memory modules for consumption and 64 GB of DIMM for servers.

Earlier this month, we reported on micron's 16 Gb DDR4 memory chip, which USES the company's second generation 10-nanometer manufacturing process, also known as 1Y nm.These DRAM chips are already in the 32 GB DDR4 memory chips used by viacom and inventec, and will be available soon.

As early as April, meguiar's storage Taiwan (formerly rex optoelectronics) broke ground on a new clean room in response to increased demand for DRAM and new process technologies.

Meguiar's (Taiwan) is already using meguiar's first-generation 10-nanometer manufacturing technology (also known as 1X nm) to make DRAM products, and will soon go directly into the third-generation 10-nanometer manufacturing process (also known as 1Z nm).Meanwhile, last year micron opened a new testing and packaging facility near taichung, creating one of the world's only vertically integrated DRAM production facilities.

Separately, micron announced plans to spend $2 billion on new cleanrooms at its factory near Hiroshima, Japan.The new capacity will reportedly be used to make meguiar's 13-nanometer technology DRAM.

Overall, meguiar's will have multiple 10-nanometer nodes.In addition to the first - and second-generation 10-nanometer processes currently in use, micron plans to introduce at least four 10-nanometer manufacturing processes: 1Z, 1 alpha, 1 beta and 1 gamma.

Meguiar's is currently producing the second generation of the 10-nanometer manufacturing process, or 1Y nm, including the company's 12gb LPDDR4X and 16gb DDR4 storage devices.

The company's next generation 1Z nm is currently approved by customers (i.e., they are testing various chips using the process) and is expected to announce shortly that the technology will be used to produce 16 Gb LPDDR5 memory devices as well as DDR5 memory devices.

Following the 1Z nm node, micron plans to begin using its 1-a-nm manufacturing technology for higher yields, which means it is in advanced development.Then came the 1 beta nm manufacturing process, which is also in the early stages of development.

Meguiar's did not say whether it would enter EUV directly after the 1nm process.The company is evaluating ASML's Twinscan NXE stepper scan capabilities and other equipment needed to produce them using extreme ultraviolet lithography, and is evaluating when these tools will be available for DRAM manufacturing.