Winbond top serial flash memory supplier, ships 1.7 billion units in 2012, ramps 58nm production

USA & TAIWAN: Winbond Electronics Corp. is now the top supplier of Serial NOR Flash memories worldwide. Based on recent market data from WebFeet Research, Winbond took the number-one position in 2012 with 27.5 percent market share of the $1.34 billion Serial Flash market.

Winbond shipped 1.7 billion Flash memories in 2012, which is 33 percent of all Serial Flash units worldwide and more than any other NOR Flash supplier. Additionally, Winbond announced it is increasing production of its 58-nanometer (58nm) SpiFlash memories at the company’s 12-inch-wafer fabrication facility in Taichung, Taiwan, to meet growing customer demand.

Winbond’s 58nm Multi-I/O SpiFlash family ranges in density from 32 megabits (Mb) to 256Mb and features the popular Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), Dual-SPI, Quad-SPI and QPI formats.

“Worldwide Serial NOR Flash shipments will continue to grow from $1.34 billion in 2012 to greater than $2.6 billion by 2016,” said Alan Niebel, founder and CEO of WebFeet Research. “Winbond, a pioneer in Serial Flash memories and now the leading supplier in this market, is well positioned to take advantage of this market growth with its innovation, broad product portfolio and manufacturing capabilities.”

“We are extremely pleased with the popularity of our SpiFlash memories and becoming the top Serial Flash supplier worldwide,” said Tung-Yi Chan, president of Winbond. “We anticipate further growth in 2013 and are ramping production of our 58-nanometer products to address a wide range of higher-density applications.”

Winbond has shipped more than five-billion Serial Flash memories since its SpiFlash product line was launched in 2006. Throughout this time the company has continued to advance its Flash process technology. Winbond introduced its first 58nm-based products in 2011 and now offers a broad line of high-density 58nm SpiFlash memories spanning 32Mb to 256Mb densities, 3V and 1.8V power supplies, in a range of packages and known-good-die (KGD) solutions.

The 58nm technology provides a more cost-effective, feature-rich and higher-performance solution than the 90nm Flash technology, now used primarily for lower-density SpiFlash products ranging from 512Kb to 16Mb.

Winbond’s 58nm Flash business is expected to grow to nearly half of its revenues in 2013, as applications demand higher Serial Flash densities. Key applications driving this demand include: mobile phones, set-top boxes, digital televisions, electronic games, cable and DSL modems, wireless LANs, networking, automotive, servers, tablets and next generation desktop and notebook computers.

Winbond is working toward even higher-density 58nm 256Mb and 512Mb Parallel NOR Flash memories to expand the existing family of 32Mb, 64Mb and 128Mb Parallel Flash and to complement the company’s Serial Flash offering for select applications that require increased performance.