UMC claims its DRAM is different to Microns

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Foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has published a second statement denying the DRAM technology it has developed for Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. is related to that of Micron Technology Inc.

eenewseurope.com, Nov. 21, 2018 – 

Last month Jinhua was hit with a ban the US Department of Commerce, the latest step in an escalation that saw UMC indicted in a California court in December 2017 over the alleged theft of DRAM trade secrets from Micron and UMC suing Micron Technology Inc. (Boise, Idaho) alleging patent infringement in the Chinese courts in 2018.

"Contrary to any impressions that may have been given by the civil and criminal lawsuits, UMC's DRAM technology is, fundamentally, based on a cell design entirely different from Micron's design. In a nutshell, UMC developed a memory cell with a 3x2 layout, which is completely different from Micron's 2x3 memory cell."

In the statement UMC stressed its history, dating back to 1996, of making DRAM and embedded DRAM processes. It pointed out that US-based fabless memory company Alliance Semiconductor Corp. used UMC as its foundry.

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