Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) under China's state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup has obtained its first orders for commercial production of over 10,000 3D NAND flash chips for use in 8GB SD memory cards, according to Charles Kau, acting chairman of YMTC and executive VP of Tsinghua Unigroup.

A total of 10,776 32-layer 3D NAND chip orders has been placed with YMTC, said Kau, adding that the company will kick off volume production of the chips around the end of 2018.

YMTC held a ceremony to celebrate equipment move-in at its new 12-inch fab in Wuhan on April 11. The facility will be dedicated to producing the company's 3D NAND flash chips with plans to reach 300,000 wafers in monthly capacity.

Tsinghua Unigroup chairman Zhao Weiguo, who also attended the ceremony, remarked that YMTC's Wuhan site has raised CNY80 billion (US$12.7 billion) in funding. The site is ready for small-scale production later in 2018 and then will move forward to develop 64-layer 128GB 3D NAND products in 2019, according to Zhao.