Renesas Electronics Corp., the world's biggest maker of microcontrollers used in cars and mobile phones, plans to expand its ability to make different products using the same technology after the March 11 earthquake shut down a wafer plant.
"In developing future core products, we plan to expand our 'fab network' that can share technology across a common platform," President Yasushi Akao said Wednesday.
Renesas, based in Kawasaki, halted production at its Naka plant in Ibaraki Prefecture after the earthquake damaged the plant, which makes 200-mm and 300-mm chips for cars and electronics. That forced carmakers to shut down their own production for several weeks.