Phison Electronics, a Taiwan-based design house of flash memory controller ICs, will gradually upgrade the manufacturing processes of eMMC, SSD and USB 3.0 controller ICs to 55nm technology to reduce production costs and the ICs' power consumption beginning in the second quarter of 2012, according to the company.

Phison began upgrades memory card controller ICs in the second half of 2011, the company indicated.

eMMC and SSD controller ICs will be the two main product lines to drive revenues growth in 2012, Phison indicated. Phison reached monthly shipments of over 10 million eMMC controller ICs in 2011 and aims at monthly shipments of 20 million units in the second quarter of 2012. Phison has introduced controller ICs for SATA III SSDs.

Phison brought in revenues of NT$2.800 billion (US$94.4 million) in February, growing 19.17% on month and 36.45% on year, and hopes to see March revenues increase 15-20%.