Toshiba's board of directors has approved a further investment by Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC), a wholly-owned subsidiary that manufactures Flash memory, in manufacturing equipment for the Fab 6 clean room under construction at Yokkaichi Operations.

TMC plans to invest approximately 110 billion yen as a second investment in Fab 6 for the installation of additional manufacturing equipment in the Phase-1 clean room.

Production at Fab 6 will be entirely devoted to BiCS FLASH, Toshiba's 3D Flash memory. TMC has previously invested approximately 195 billion yen in Fab 6 as its first investment covering the installation of manufacturing equipment in the Phase-1 clean room and the construction of the Phase-2 clean room.

The investment in Fab 6 will enable TMC to install manufacturing equipment for 96-layer 3D Flash memories, including deposition and etching equipment.

TMC says it had asked WD's SanDisk, its collaborator in three joint ventures for investment in manufacturing equipment at TMC's Yokkaichi Operations, whether it intends to jointly participate in this second investment for the Phase-1 clean room in the Fab 6 facility.