Qimonda
Encyclopedia
Qimonda AG
, was a memory
company split out of Infineon Technologies
(itself a spun off business unit of Siemens AG
) on 1 May 2006, to form at the time the second largest DRAM
company worldwide, according to the industry research firm Gartner
Dataquest. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Qimonda is a 300 mm manufacturer, and is one of the top suppliers of DRAM products for the PC
and server
markets. Infineon still controls a 77.5% stake, which it has written down (2008). Infineon was on record as having the aim of divesting itself of this stake, with the purpose of becoming a minority stakeholder in 2009. The company has issued 42 million ADR shares, each ADR share representing one ordinary share in Qimonda.
At its height in 2007, Qimonda employed approximately 13,500 personnel worldwide, from whom 1,800 were employed in R&D with access to four 300 mm manufacturing sites and operating six major R&D facilities, and included a chip
packaging complex in Vila do Conde, Portugal
, and its lead R&D center in Dresden
, Germany
, in total covering three continents. During this time, and on into 2008/09, the price of DRAM continued to decline due to market oversupply, resulting in significant corporate financial losses throughout 2008. In October 2008 major restructuring was announced to try to reduce losses and re-align the company within the struggling DRAM sector. The restructuring saw the sale of Qimonda's interest in its largest 300 mm manufacturing site (Inotera, Taiwan - a joint venture between Nanya Technology and Qimonda AG, with QAG owning 35.6% at the time of sale) to its rival, Micron Technology
, for approximately $400m in cash. Additionally, CEO Kin Wah Loh announced the closure by January 2009 of the company's single remaining 200 mm site as well as the adjoining 300 mm facility located in Richmond, Virginia, which aOther restructuring included the complete closure of the Raleigh R&D facility and the termination of the back-end component and module manufacturing site in Dresden. Altogether, approximately 3000 employees would be made redundant by the changes (excluding the Micron buy-out of Inotera).
With a historical emphasis on PC and server products, the company now focused on products for graphics, mobile and consumer applications using its power-saving deep trench technology.
The company continued to lose money, and sought new investors to help keep the company afloat. The continuing fall in the spot price of commodity DRAM resulted in Qimonda’s 75 nm Deep Trench technology no longer being economically viable. The decision was taken in November 2008 to cease production of all commodity DRAM at their Dresden and Richmond 300 mm manufacturing sites. Until this point Richmond had predominantly produced graphics DRAM, whilst Dresden manufactured commodity DRAM. This left the Dresden site’s production capability severely under-utilized (although a significant proportion of the line utilization remained as technology development). All of the graphics manufacture was therefore transferred from Richmond to Dresden.
Qimonda’s financial situation worsened during December and the company focused its efforts on securing additional financial support. On December 21, 2008, Qimonda AG issed a press release stating that they had secured a financial package of €325 million for the ramp up of Buried Wordline technology. The package comprised a €150 million loan from the German state of Saxony, €100 million from an unspecified leading financial institution in Portugal, and €75 million from Infineon, Qimonda’s parent company. In addition, they were provided with the opportunity to draw on €280 million in the form of a state guarantee provided by the German federal government. In return, Qimonda agreed to commit to further development of their R&D and manufacturing sites in Porto, Portugal and Dresden, and to quickly ramp up their 46 nm BWT to improve economies of scale at Dresden.
However on January 23, 2009, Qimonda AG filed for insolvency protection, stating that the promised package had not become available in time.
However, subsequent media reporting of the event suggests that the agreement to the package fell apart at the last minute, and so was not available. It is reported that shortly prior to filing, Qimonda had requested a further €300 million on top of the already-agreed €325 million. The backers then refused to meet the demands.
As a separate legal entity, Qimonda North America remained technically solvent. However, without financial support from the parent company or access to revenue from sales (which went to Qimonda AG) there were few options available to QNA. On February 3, 2009, QNA announced the closure of its remaining plant in Richmond, VA. This is the first known closure of an operating 300 mm production fab. On February 20, 2009, Qimonda North America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
As a result of the bankruptcy filing, due to the unpaid wages, unpaid vacation balances, no severance, the unpaid severance of those who have severance agreements, and no 60 days notice of a plant closure as required by the WARN act, former workers at Qimonda LLC and Qimonda NA in Richmond, VA have decided to file a class action lawsuit against Qimonda to try and recover the unpaid wages, unpaid vacation balance, unpaid severance, and to get 60 days pay for a plant closure as required by the WARN act. The workers have been informed by legal sources that should they prevail in the lawsuit that they will be paid before unsecured creditors (e.g., vendors), but after secured creditors.
The Richmond site was only capable of manufacturing Qimonda's 75 nm Deep Trench technology chips with the manufacturing equipment available there. The concurrent DRAM pricing did not make this a viable manufacturing prospect given the financial situation due to the graphics chips, which were developed by Richmond, being transferred to Dresden by Qimonda AG prior to shutting down Qimonda LLC. Because Dresden was the core DRAM development site, manufacturing equipment capable of producing their (at the time, developmental) 46 nm Buried Wordline chips, with its reduced manufacturing cost benefits, was already on site. A corporate decision was taken to consolidate losses by closing the Richmond site. Richmond would not be capable of 46 nm BWL manufacture without substantial new equipment investment, requiring money that Qimonda did not have. Qimonda AG, however, moved the 75 nm video DRAM processes, which commanded a price premium over commodity PC DRAM products, from Richmond to Dresden in the months prior to shutting down Richmond. Transferring the graphics chips process away from Richmond made the situation at Qimonda LLC intractable.
The Dresden site plods ahead with 46 nm Buried Wordline development and produced the first working samples at the beginning of February 2009. It is hoped that the improved technological and cost advantages of the BWL technology will attract new investors or business partners before insolvency cover ends on March 31, 2009.
Qimonda's knowledge-base and collection of 20,000 patents remain very valuable. It is one of only three companies in the world to have mass produced GDDR3, GDDR5, and XDR memory. Winbond of Taiwan was able to achieve relatively good gross margins using trench technology licensed from Qimonda. Winbond is now successfully mass producing 65 nm buried wordline DRAM at this time and, among DRAM manufacturers, is currently the gross margin leader in Taiwan. This attests to the quality of Qimonda's intellectual property. Qimonda is also finished with litigation versus Rambus over intellectual property.
However, Winbond manufactures both trench capacitor and stacked capacitor technology. Additionally, Winbond manufactures Flash Memory, SRAM, as well as some legacy DRAM products (DDR, DDR2). Moreover, the trench process is being produced only down to 90 nm, whereas the stacked capacitor process is being produced at the 65 nm lithography. Therefore, the comparison between Winbond and other DRAM manufacturers is an apples and oranges comparison.
On March 13, 2009, according to EETimes, Qimonda in Dresden has ceased all DRAM production for the time being. "We have not pulled the plug, we just went to standby-mode," a spokesperson explained. The company together with the administrator had been searching for fresh capital, but it was not possible to finalise a deal by the end of March, the end of the insolvency period. The 300 mm Dresden plant will be idled until such time as its future has been decided. Without either a partner to purchase Qimonda or an investor to recapitalize Qimonda, Qimonda's existence as an on-going concern is dubious at best.
Currently, Qimonda Richmond is down to a skeleton crew of approximately 60 people, including 10 staff managers. Prior to the layoffs, the level of staff managers was 10 as well.
On June 22, 2009, Qimonda Richmond is filing a petition in bankruptcy court to allow 46 employess to receive a bonus payment totaling $1.24 million. However, as one may recall, Qimonda declared bankruptcy on Feb. 20, 2009 in Federal Court in Delaware. As a result, many employees did not receive their final paycheck, nor did many employees receive cash in lieu of their vacation balance.
On June 25, 2009, bankruptcy court in Delaware allowed Qimonda Richmond to pay out a $1.24 million bonus to 46 employees as a part of a "shut down" bonus. No mention was made concerning those who hadn't received their vacation pay or a severance or in some cases, their final paycheck.
On July 1, 2009, former Qimonda employees gathered outside of Qimonda Richmond to protest the $1.24 million payout bonus to 46 employees. Virginia State Delegate Joe Morrissey of the 74th district was present at the protest.
”, pronounced as "ch-ee', stands for breathing and flowing energy, while “monda” denotes “world” in Latin-based languages. "Qi", when pronounced as a hard "k", suggests “key to the world”, a positive connotation."
On September 18, 2006 Qimonda AG along with Nanya Technology Corporation announced the successful qualification of the 75 nm DRAM trench technology. Process structures of 75 nm further reduce chip size compared to the previous 90 nm technology thereby increasing potential chip output per wafer by about 40 percent.
On September 16, 2008 Qimonda North America (QNA) announced that no funding would be issued for merit increases or promotions as part of the year-end appraisal process in order to reduce costs.
On October 13, 2008, Qimonda North America announced that it was closing its 200 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA, resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs.
On October 27, 2008 Qimonda North America (QNA) announced that the approved incentive payments due to be paid to employees that month had been postponed until January 16, 2009, for Richmond employees and February 13, 2009, for QNA-direct employees.
On October 28, 2008 Qimonda AG achieved the lowest share price of USD 0.19 on NYSE.
On November 1, 2007 Qimonda AG announced shipment of first GDDR5
samples.
On November 24, 2008 Qimonda AG achieved the lowest share price of USD 0.05 on NYSE.
In December, 2008 Qimonda North America announced mandatory unpaid leave for all employees at its Richmond site amounting to a 10% salary reduction for exempt staff and approximately 15% reduction for non-exempt employees. The mandatory unpaid leave was expected to last until the beginning of April 2009.
On January 23, 2009 Qimonda AG filed for insolvency (similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US courts). The company also published its yearly accounts, which had been delayed several times from its normal release date at the end of October 2008. This showed a drop in net sales to €1.79 billion, down from the previous year's filing of €3.61 billion.
In the days after the announcement general DRAM spot market prices increased by a peak of 26% from their lowest recorded levels in January. However, within a month of the announcement they had returned to their previous level.
On February 3, 2009 Qimonda North America announced the closure by April of its remaining 300 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA. Over the next two months, 1500 employees would be laid off without severance pay. Five hundred employees were made redundant within 24 hours of the announcement. A further 500 will be made redundant over the coming month. The remainder will be made redundant as the plant equipment is sold or mothballed by the beginning of April.
On the same day, Qimonda AG announced the first 46 nm working production chips using its Buried Wordline technology, fabricated at its Dresden 300 mm plant.
On February 20, 2009, Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond LLC files for Chaper 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
On March 13, 2009, according to EETimes, Qimonda in Dresden has ceased all DRAM production for the time being. Michael Jaffe, the insolvency administrator appointed by a German Bankruptcy Court, announced that Qimonda is closer to liquidation.
On March 16, 2009, China's Inspur
ended talks to buy Qimonda.
April 2, 2009, Qimonda put the Richmond, VA site for sale.
On April 14, 2009, Qimonda laid off 800 employees in Portugal.
In May 2010 the Qimonda signs were permanently removed from the Sandston, Virginia facility.
On February 18, 2009, (two days before filing for bankruptcy) the Richmond Times-Dispatch posted an article stating that QNA CFO Miriam Martinez sent out notices to previously laid-off employees informing them that Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond were now not in a financial position to honor its severance agreements to those affected employees from the (previous) 200 mm line closure announced in October 2008. The selfish Miriam Martinez allowed the German parent company to maximize their profits by running the Richmond plant into the ground at the expense of 4,000 employees. During this time, Martinez was collecting a generous bi-weekly salary and put herself in for a generous "retention" bonus. She is now keeping a low profile somewhere in Florida to avoid drive-by style persecution from the thugs on Qimonda Richmond's N1 shift.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-QIMO18_20090217-202807/209053/
Qimonda North America Corp. and Qimonda Richmond LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 20, 2009 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. In their filing, the company lists more than $1 billion in assets and liabilities each, and estimated between 10,000 – 25,000 creditors. The files’ listing of top 30 creditors shows a total of over $54.2 million owed to traders. QNA CFO Miriam Martinez issued a statement announcing that under the conditions of the bankruptcy filing, all those employees made redundant by the company on or before the date of bankruptcy could no longer be paid any credit due without court authority. This meant that QNA employees who had not already been paid severance would no longer receive any salary, unused vacation time or severance owed to them. This affected the majority of the workforce. Employees due costs under visa regulations would also receive no compensation.
Those employees remaining with the company from February 20 onwards would only receive pay and benefits from that day forward, up to a maximum of $10,950. Therefore, no payment would be made to those employees for the work performed between February 7 and February 20.
.
) ended shortly before the buy-out by rival chip-maker Micron Technology when Nanya declined the offer of joint development of Qimonda's Buried Wordline technology. Inotera will continue to supply DRAM to Qimonda until approximately mid-2009. Qimonda has other strategic alliances with China
-Singapore
Suzhou Industrial Park
Venture Co., Ltd., SMIC
, Winbond Electronics Corporation, IBM
, Altis
, AMD
(for ATI graphics products), Toppan Photomasks, Spansion
, and Sandisk
.
Qimonda is primarily reliant on its Deep Trench technology in comparison to the stack capacitor
systems of its rival manufacturers. Deep Trench has the benefit of a theoretically smaller footprint than its stack capacitor rival. With approximately one-third lower power consumption due to lower leakage currents, its natural advantages lie in mobile and laptop applications where power supply is a limiting factor. Although offering significant advantages, deep trench technology is technically difficult to manufacture and has led to slippage of Qimonda's technology shrink roadmap in comparison to many of its rivals in recent years.
In 2008, Qimonda announced the development of its Buried Wordline Technology. Retaining many of the advantages of Deep Trench technology, in theory it simplifies the manufacturing process and once again provides Qimonda with a competitive technology shrink roadmap.
Aktiengesellschaft
Aktiengesellschaft is a German term that refers to a corporation that is limited by shares, i.e. owned by shareholders, and may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland...
, was a memory
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
company split out of Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer and was founded on April 1, 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the parent company Siemens AG were spun off to form a separate legal entity. , Infineon has 25,149 employees worldwide...
(itself a spun off business unit of Siemens AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
) on 1 May 2006, to form at the time the second largest DRAM
Dram
Dram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:...
company worldwide, according to the industry research firm Gartner
Gartner
Gartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Dataquest. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Qimonda is a 300 mm manufacturer, and is one of the top suppliers of DRAM products for the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
and server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
markets. Infineon still controls a 77.5% stake, which it has written down (2008). Infineon was on record as having the aim of divesting itself of this stake, with the purpose of becoming a minority stakeholder in 2009. The company has issued 42 million ADR shares, each ADR share representing one ordinary share in Qimonda.
At its height in 2007, Qimonda employed approximately 13,500 personnel worldwide, from whom 1,800 were employed in R&D with access to four 300 mm manufacturing sites and operating six major R&D facilities, and included a chip
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
packaging complex in Vila do Conde, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, and its lead R&D center in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, in total covering three continents. During this time, and on into 2008/09, the price of DRAM continued to decline due to market oversupply, resulting in significant corporate financial losses throughout 2008. In October 2008 major restructuring was announced to try to reduce losses and re-align the company within the struggling DRAM sector. The restructuring saw the sale of Qimonda's interest in its largest 300 mm manufacturing site (Inotera, Taiwan - a joint venture between Nanya Technology and Qimonda AG, with QAG owning 35.6% at the time of sale) to its rival, Micron Technology
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Boise, Idaho, USA, best known for producing many forms of semiconductor devices. This includes DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, SSD and CMOS image sensing chips. Consumers may be more familiar with its consumer brand Crucial...
, for approximately $400m in cash. Additionally, CEO Kin Wah Loh announced the closure by January 2009 of the company's single remaining 200 mm site as well as the adjoining 300 mm facility located in Richmond, Virginia, which aOther restructuring included the complete closure of the Raleigh R&D facility and the termination of the back-end component and module manufacturing site in Dresden. Altogether, approximately 3000 employees would be made redundant by the changes (excluding the Micron buy-out of Inotera).
With a historical emphasis on PC and server products, the company now focused on products for graphics, mobile and consumer applications using its power-saving deep trench technology.
The company continued to lose money, and sought new investors to help keep the company afloat. The continuing fall in the spot price of commodity DRAM resulted in Qimonda’s 75 nm Deep Trench technology no longer being economically viable. The decision was taken in November 2008 to cease production of all commodity DRAM at their Dresden and Richmond 300 mm manufacturing sites. Until this point Richmond had predominantly produced graphics DRAM, whilst Dresden manufactured commodity DRAM. This left the Dresden site’s production capability severely under-utilized (although a significant proportion of the line utilization remained as technology development). All of the graphics manufacture was therefore transferred from Richmond to Dresden.
Qimonda’s financial situation worsened during December and the company focused its efforts on securing additional financial support. On December 21, 2008, Qimonda AG issed a press release stating that they had secured a financial package of €325 million for the ramp up of Buried Wordline technology. The package comprised a €150 million loan from the German state of Saxony, €100 million from an unspecified leading financial institution in Portugal, and €75 million from Infineon, Qimonda’s parent company. In addition, they were provided with the opportunity to draw on €280 million in the form of a state guarantee provided by the German federal government. In return, Qimonda agreed to commit to further development of their R&D and manufacturing sites in Porto, Portugal and Dresden, and to quickly ramp up their 46 nm BWT to improve economies of scale at Dresden.
However on January 23, 2009, Qimonda AG filed for insolvency protection, stating that the promised package had not become available in time.
However, subsequent media reporting of the event suggests that the agreement to the package fell apart at the last minute, and so was not available. It is reported that shortly prior to filing, Qimonda had requested a further €300 million on top of the already-agreed €325 million. The backers then refused to meet the demands.
As a separate legal entity, Qimonda North America remained technically solvent. However, without financial support from the parent company or access to revenue from sales (which went to Qimonda AG) there were few options available to QNA. On February 3, 2009, QNA announced the closure of its remaining plant in Richmond, VA. This is the first known closure of an operating 300 mm production fab. On February 20, 2009, Qimonda North America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
As a result of the bankruptcy filing, due to the unpaid wages, unpaid vacation balances, no severance, the unpaid severance of those who have severance agreements, and no 60 days notice of a plant closure as required by the WARN act, former workers at Qimonda LLC and Qimonda NA in Richmond, VA have decided to file a class action lawsuit against Qimonda to try and recover the unpaid wages, unpaid vacation balance, unpaid severance, and to get 60 days pay for a plant closure as required by the WARN act. The workers have been informed by legal sources that should they prevail in the lawsuit that they will be paid before unsecured creditors (e.g., vendors), but after secured creditors.
The Richmond site was only capable of manufacturing Qimonda's 75 nm Deep Trench technology chips with the manufacturing equipment available there. The concurrent DRAM pricing did not make this a viable manufacturing prospect given the financial situation due to the graphics chips, which were developed by Richmond, being transferred to Dresden by Qimonda AG prior to shutting down Qimonda LLC. Because Dresden was the core DRAM development site, manufacturing equipment capable of producing their (at the time, developmental) 46 nm Buried Wordline chips, with its reduced manufacturing cost benefits, was already on site. A corporate decision was taken to consolidate losses by closing the Richmond site. Richmond would not be capable of 46 nm BWL manufacture without substantial new equipment investment, requiring money that Qimonda did not have. Qimonda AG, however, moved the 75 nm video DRAM processes, which commanded a price premium over commodity PC DRAM products, from Richmond to Dresden in the months prior to shutting down Richmond. Transferring the graphics chips process away from Richmond made the situation at Qimonda LLC intractable.
The Dresden site plods ahead with 46 nm Buried Wordline development and produced the first working samples at the beginning of February 2009. It is hoped that the improved technological and cost advantages of the BWL technology will attract new investors or business partners before insolvency cover ends on March 31, 2009.
Qimonda's knowledge-base and collection of 20,000 patents remain very valuable. It is one of only three companies in the world to have mass produced GDDR3, GDDR5, and XDR memory. Winbond of Taiwan was able to achieve relatively good gross margins using trench technology licensed from Qimonda. Winbond is now successfully mass producing 65 nm buried wordline DRAM at this time and, among DRAM manufacturers, is currently the gross margin leader in Taiwan. This attests to the quality of Qimonda's intellectual property. Qimonda is also finished with litigation versus Rambus over intellectual property.
However, Winbond manufactures both trench capacitor and stacked capacitor technology. Additionally, Winbond manufactures Flash Memory, SRAM, as well as some legacy DRAM products (DDR, DDR2). Moreover, the trench process is being produced only down to 90 nm, whereas the stacked capacitor process is being produced at the 65 nm lithography. Therefore, the comparison between Winbond and other DRAM manufacturers is an apples and oranges comparison.
On March 13, 2009, according to EETimes, Qimonda in Dresden has ceased all DRAM production for the time being. "We have not pulled the plug, we just went to standby-mode," a spokesperson explained. The company together with the administrator had been searching for fresh capital, but it was not possible to finalise a deal by the end of March, the end of the insolvency period. The 300 mm Dresden plant will be idled until such time as its future has been decided. Without either a partner to purchase Qimonda or an investor to recapitalize Qimonda, Qimonda's existence as an on-going concern is dubious at best.
Currently, Qimonda Richmond is down to a skeleton crew of approximately 60 people, including 10 staff managers. Prior to the layoffs, the level of staff managers was 10 as well.
On June 22, 2009, Qimonda Richmond is filing a petition in bankruptcy court to allow 46 employess to receive a bonus payment totaling $1.24 million. However, as one may recall, Qimonda declared bankruptcy on Feb. 20, 2009 in Federal Court in Delaware. As a result, many employees did not receive their final paycheck, nor did many employees receive cash in lieu of their vacation balance.
On June 25, 2009, bankruptcy court in Delaware allowed Qimonda Richmond to pay out a $1.24 million bonus to 46 employees as a part of a "shut down" bonus. No mention was made concerning those who hadn't received their vacation pay or a severance or in some cases, their final paycheck.
On July 1, 2009, former Qimonda employees gathered outside of Qimonda Richmond to protest the $1.24 million payout bonus to 46 employees. Virginia State Delegate Joe Morrissey of the 74th district was present at the protest.
Meaning of Qimonda
"Qimonda" is an invented name, which falls into the "evocative" class by branding agencies. These names are designed to evoke the qualities of the product or company rather than explain the actual goods or services the company supplies. Along with the new name, the company supplies an explanation of its meaning: "The name and brand identity of Qimonda express the philosophy and personality of the company, illustrating its vision and values. The word “Qimonda” carries different meanings and allows associations in different languages. In Chinese, “QiQi
In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...
”, pronounced as "ch-ee', stands for breathing and flowing energy, while “monda” denotes “world” in Latin-based languages. "Qi", when pronounced as a hard "k", suggests “key to the world”, a positive connotation."
Achievements and developments
Qimonda was among the first DRAM suppliers to transition a substantial portion of the manufacturing to 300 mm technology. Approximately 2/3 of the DRAM bits shipped were manufactured using 300 mm wafers by February 2007. . All 200 mm manufacturing ended by January 2009.On September 18, 2006 Qimonda AG along with Nanya Technology Corporation announced the successful qualification of the 75 nm DRAM trench technology. Process structures of 75 nm further reduce chip size compared to the previous 90 nm technology thereby increasing potential chip output per wafer by about 40 percent.
On September 16, 2008 Qimonda North America (QNA) announced that no funding would be issued for merit increases or promotions as part of the year-end appraisal process in order to reduce costs.
On October 13, 2008, Qimonda North America announced that it was closing its 200 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA, resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs.
On October 27, 2008 Qimonda North America (QNA) announced that the approved incentive payments due to be paid to employees that month had been postponed until January 16, 2009, for Richmond employees and February 13, 2009, for QNA-direct employees.
On October 28, 2008 Qimonda AG achieved the lowest share price of USD 0.19 on NYSE.
On November 1, 2007 Qimonda AG announced shipment of first GDDR5
GDDR5
GDDR5 SDRAM is a type of high performance DRAM graphics card memory designed for computer applications requiring high bandwidth...
samples.
On November 24, 2008 Qimonda AG achieved the lowest share price of USD 0.05 on NYSE.
In December, 2008 Qimonda North America announced mandatory unpaid leave for all employees at its Richmond site amounting to a 10% salary reduction for exempt staff and approximately 15% reduction for non-exempt employees. The mandatory unpaid leave was expected to last until the beginning of April 2009.
On January 23, 2009 Qimonda AG filed for insolvency (similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US courts). The company also published its yearly accounts, which had been delayed several times from its normal release date at the end of October 2008. This showed a drop in net sales to €1.79 billion, down from the previous year's filing of €3.61 billion.
In the days after the announcement general DRAM spot market prices increased by a peak of 26% from their lowest recorded levels in January. However, within a month of the announcement they had returned to their previous level.
On February 3, 2009 Qimonda North America announced the closure by April of its remaining 300 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA. Over the next two months, 1500 employees would be laid off without severance pay. Five hundred employees were made redundant within 24 hours of the announcement. A further 500 will be made redundant over the coming month. The remainder will be made redundant as the plant equipment is sold or mothballed by the beginning of April.
On the same day, Qimonda AG announced the first 46 nm working production chips using its Buried Wordline technology, fabricated at its Dresden 300 mm plant.
On February 20, 2009, Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond LLC files for Chaper 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
On March 13, 2009, according to EETimes, Qimonda in Dresden has ceased all DRAM production for the time being. Michael Jaffe, the insolvency administrator appointed by a German Bankruptcy Court, announced that Qimonda is closer to liquidation.
On March 16, 2009, China's Inspur
Inspur
Inspur, formerly named Langchao, is a Chinese computer technology company famous for its PC server and software products....
ended talks to buy Qimonda.
April 2, 2009, Qimonda put the Richmond, VA site for sale.
On April 14, 2009, Qimonda laid off 800 employees in Portugal.
In May 2010 the Qimonda signs were permanently removed from the Sandston, Virginia facility.
Qimonda AG
Qimonda AG and Qimonda Dresden OHG filed for insolvency protection on January 23, 2009. They requested the insolvency protection be backdated to January 1, 2009. The Munich court appointed Dr. Michael Jaffé as administrator. Dr. Jaffé is a lawyer who specializes in insolvency and restructuring. His most famous previous case was his handling of the collapse of the KirchMedia group. In a press release, CEO Kin Wah Loh stated, “German insolvency laws offers the opportunity to accelerate the restructuring process that has already been started in order to reposition the company back onto a solid base”. Under German law, the operating costs (including salaries) are underwritten by the government for three months. This means that Qimonda has until March 31, 2009 to secure a solution to its current insolvency issues.Qimonda North America
On or about Feb 7, 2009, a laid-off Qimonda employee began legal proceedings against QNA for recompense for two months' worth of pay and benefits in a federal class-action lawsuit. The suit alleges that employees were not given their 60-day written notice of termination or 60 days' severance pay required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)act.http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-QIMO07_20090206-212015/200403/. Qimonda argues that the “faltering company” exemption under WARN applies, which allows the company to fail to give notice where such advance notice may inhibit the company’s ability to find capital or business with which to continue operating. Since then, several class action lawsuits along similar themes have been reported in the press.On February 18, 2009, (two days before filing for bankruptcy) the Richmond Times-Dispatch posted an article stating that QNA CFO Miriam Martinez sent out notices to previously laid-off employees informing them that Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond were now not in a financial position to honor its severance agreements to those affected employees from the (previous) 200 mm line closure announced in October 2008. The selfish Miriam Martinez allowed the German parent company to maximize their profits by running the Richmond plant into the ground at the expense of 4,000 employees. During this time, Martinez was collecting a generous bi-weekly salary and put herself in for a generous "retention" bonus. She is now keeping a low profile somewhere in Florida to avoid drive-by style persecution from the thugs on Qimonda Richmond's N1 shift.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-QIMO18_20090217-202807/209053/
Qimonda North America Corp. and Qimonda Richmond LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 20, 2009 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. In their filing, the company lists more than $1 billion in assets and liabilities each, and estimated between 10,000 – 25,000 creditors. The files’ listing of top 30 creditors shows a total of over $54.2 million owed to traders. QNA CFO Miriam Martinez issued a statement announcing that under the conditions of the bankruptcy filing, all those employees made redundant by the company on or before the date of bankruptcy could no longer be paid any credit due without court authority. This meant that QNA employees who had not already been paid severance would no longer receive any salary, unused vacation time or severance owed to them. This affected the majority of the workforce. Employees due costs under visa regulations would also receive no compensation.
Those employees remaining with the company from February 20 onwards would only receive pay and benefits from that day forward, up to a maximum of $10,950. Therefore, no payment would be made to those employees for the work performed between February 7 and February 20.
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Alliances
Qimonda's strategic alliance with Nanya Technology Corporation (e.g. the joint-venture InoteraInotera
Inotera Memories, Inc. , incorporated on January 2003, is a joint venture between Nanya Technology Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc....
) ended shortly before the buy-out by rival chip-maker Micron Technology when Nanya declined the offer of joint development of Qimonda's Buried Wordline technology. Inotera will continue to supply DRAM to Qimonda until approximately mid-2009. Qimonda has other strategic alliances with China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
-Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
Suzhou Industrial Park
Suzhou Industrial Park
The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park is an industrial park built in Suzhou, China with significant Singaporean input. In the late 1990s, the heavy losses incurred by the park caused a minor scandal in Singapore.-Background:...
Venture Co., Ltd., SMIC
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, is a semiconductor foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit manufacturing services at 350 nm to 45nm technologies...
, Winbond Electronics Corporation, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Altis
Altis
Altis was a location in what is today Peloponnese, Greece, on a little plain in the Elis Prefecture, on the right shore of the Alfeios River near the city of Pyrgos, around 18 kilometers away from the Ionian Sea and at the foot of Mount Cronion....
, AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
(for ATI graphics products), Toppan Photomasks, Spansion
Spansion
Spansion Inc. is a Flash memory chip maker that designs, develops and manufactures NOR flash memory products. The company has over 3,400 employees and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Spansion is a former joint-venture between AMD and Fujitsu....
, and Sandisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...
.
Products
- ComputingComputingComputing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
DRAMDramDram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:... - GraphicsGraphicsGraphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another... - ConsumerConsumerConsumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
DRAMDramDram or DRAM may refer to:As a unit of measure:* Dram , an imperial unit of mass and volume* Armenian dram, a monetary unit* Dirham, a unit of currency in several Arab nationsOther uses:... - Mobile-RAM
- Flash MemoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
Qimonda is primarily reliant on its Deep Trench technology in comparison to the stack capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
systems of its rival manufacturers. Deep Trench has the benefit of a theoretically smaller footprint than its stack capacitor rival. With approximately one-third lower power consumption due to lower leakage currents, its natural advantages lie in mobile and laptop applications where power supply is a limiting factor. Although offering significant advantages, deep trench technology is technically difficult to manufacture and has led to slippage of Qimonda's technology shrink roadmap in comparison to many of its rivals in recent years.
In 2008, Qimonda announced the development of its Buried Wordline Technology. Retaining many of the advantages of Deep Trench technology, in theory it simplifies the manufacturing process and once again provides Qimonda with a competitive technology shrink roadmap.
Production sites
- DresdenDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... - Vila do Conde, PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. This factory was for some years (up to 2007) the biggest PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
exporter. Nowadays it is called Nanium www.nanium.com. - RichmondRichmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, VA, USA. (Ceased operation and was closed on April 1, 2009.) - Senai, Johore, Malaysia.
Media
- Video of the July 1, 2009 Qimonda Protest
- Pirate Flag over Qimonda
- Ex-Qimonda workers protest bonuses to current workers
- DRAM prices spike after Qimonda bankruptcy
- Qimonda to close Richmond plant, lay off 1,500
- February 2, 2009 - Qimonda future uncertain despite talks-German state
External links
- Qimonda website
- Qimonda stock on NYSE
- NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
WiiWiiThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
game console uses Qimonda GDDR3 graphics RAM - MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game console uses Qimonda graphics RAM