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Micron-UMC-JHICC legal battle expands; chiplets; ASIC spinoff.
semiengineering.com
NOVEMBER 2ND, 2018 - BY: MARK LAPEDUS
Chipmakers
A U.S. federal grand jury has indicted Chinese DRAM maker Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (JHICC), Taiwan’s UMC and three individuals, charging them with alleged crimes related to a conspiracy to steal, convey, and possess stolen trade secrets from Micron Technology for the benefit of a company controlled by the China government.
In addition, the U.S. filed a civil lawsuit seeking to enjoin the further transfer of stolen trade secrets and to enjoin certain defendants from exporting to the United States any products manufactured by UMC and JHICC that were created using the trade secrets at issue. The indictment was filed on Sept. 27.
UMC issued a statement, dismissing the allegations.
This week’s announcement follows a long and complex legal battle that involves Micron, JHICC and UMC.
In 2016, JHICC broke ground on a 300mm fab in Jinjiang City in the Fujian province in southern China, at a cost of $5.65 billion. JHICC’s investors include Fujian Electronics & Information and Jinjiang Energy Investment.
JHICC plans to move into production with 22nm specialty DRAMs. It obtained the technology from a licensing/R&D alliance with UMC. UMC isn’t involved with JHICC’s operations.
Last December, Micron Technology filed a suit against JHICC and UMC for alleged theft of Micron’s technology. UMC denied those claims. Then, in January, UMC filed a counter claim against Micron, alleging that Micron infringed upon UMC’s patents.
Then in July, Micron appeared to have suffered a legal setback. UMC announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued a preliminary injunction against Micron Semiconductor (Xi’an) and Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai), enjoining Micron from offering to sell, and selling in the PRC 26 DRAM and NAND-related items, including certain solid-state hard drives and memory sticks in China.
Micron appears to have struck back. An indictment was filed on Sept. 27. The civil lawsuit was filed on Nov. 1. According to the indictment, the defendants–JHICC, UMC and three individuals–were allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to steal the trade secrets of Micron.
Then, on Oct. 30, the U.S. Department of Commerce moved to restrict exports of equipment and software to JHICC. The Chinese DRAM hopeful “poses a significant risk of becoming involved in activities that are contrary to the national security interests of the United States,” according to the U.S. government agency.
JHICC is nearing the completion of its DRAM fab. “The additional production, in light of the likely U.S.-origin technology, threatens the long-term economic viability of U.S. suppliers of these essential components of U.S. military systems,” according to the U.S. agency. “When a foreign company engages in activity contrary to our national security interests, we will take strong action to protect our national security. Placing Jinhua on the ‘Entity List’ will limit its ability to threaten the supply chain for essential components in our military systems,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
The “Entity List” identifies entities reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.
As a result, UMC this week decided to halt activities with JHICC. “Due to the uncertainty surrounding the situation, we decided to temporarily suspend the R&D activities we were doing for Fujian Jinhua,” according to a spokesman for UMC.
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