Mark LaPedus EE Times (02/03/2010 2:52 PM EST)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Japan's Renesas Technology Corp. (Tokyo) has completed a new building involving an investment of approximately 4 billion yen ($43.9 million) to increase microcontroller (MCU) production capacity at its back-end process plant in Beijing, China.

Plans call for operations to commence at the building within fiscal year 2010, ended March 2011. When operation is underway, the production area of the plant will be expanded by approximately 60 percent.

The plant is aimed to strengthen its MCU business and its China business in general.

NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas recently moved their merger agreement forward by signing a deal to integrate business operations at NEC Electronics and Renesas on April 1, 2010. This agreement follows on from the definitive agreement which was signed on Sept 16, 2009.

As they prepare to merge, Renesas and NEC Electronics are clearing the decks of their semiconductor manufacturing facilities in order to provide a optimum base for growth. If they merge as planned next April to form Renesas Electronics, the resulting semiconductor business will have sales of around $12 billion, making it the third largest chip company behind Intel and Samsung.

NEC Electronics and Renesas this week also announced candidates of the executive team that will be in place following the business integration of the two firms. The merged company will be called Renesas.

Susumu Furukawa has been newly appointed to take the role of the remaining outside director position of Renesas, effective as of April 1, 2010.

NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology also announced their plan to consolidate the companies' domestic sales operations into Renesas Technology Sales Co. Ltd., whose name will change to Renesas Electronics Sales Co. Ltd.

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