NEC Electronics and Elpida Memory have signed an agreement to form a joint venture company in the field of display driver ICs.

The companies plan to incorporate the new company by the end of 2008. NEC Electronics will hold an 80% stake and Elpida will hold a 20% stake in the yet-to-be-named company, which will develop, design, and sell display driver ICs.

The joint venture, in addition to manufacturing at NEC Electronics, will outsource its production to Elpida's Hiroshima plant, a 300mm fab with a monthly capacity of approximately 120,000 wafers.

The companies said the joint venture will develop process technology to accelerate die size shrinkage by applying Elpida's DRAM process technology to NEC Electronics' driver IC development technology.

NEC Electronics has been active in the display driver IC business since 1989, when it commercialised a driver IC for large LCD panels used in personal computers and the likes.

In its fiscal year ended March 2008, NEC Electronics recorded annual sales of approximately $745 million (80 billion yen) in its display driver IC business for a 12 to 13% share of the worldwide market.

Meanwhile, Elpida, Japan's only dedicated DRAM manufacturer, had sales of $3.78 billion (405.5 billion yen) for the fiscal year ended March 2008.

The two companies said they will work out further details of their joint-venture plan as they move forward.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News - Electronic News