Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, including the Ballistix line of memory modules, are marketed under the Crucial brand. Micron and Intel together created IM Flash Technologies, which produced NAND flash memory. It owned Lexar between 2006[3] and 2017.[4]

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In 2000 Gurtej Singh Sandhu and Trung T. Doan at Micron initiated the development of atomic layer deposition high-k films for DRAM memory devices. This helped drive cost-effective implementation of semiconductor memory, starting with 90 nm node DRAM.[1][9] Pitch double-patterning was also pioneered by Gurtej Singh Sandhu at Micron during the 2000s, leading to the development of 30-nm class NAND flash memory, and it has since been widely adopted by NAND flash and RAM manufacturers worldwide.[1][10]

In 2002 Micron put its personal computer business up for sale. The company found the business difficult as the number 12 American computer maker with only 1.3 percent of the market.[11]

Micron and Intel created a joint venture in 2005, based in IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, Utah.[12] The two companies formed another joint venture in 2011, IM Flash Singapore, in Singapore.[13] In 2012 Micron became sole owner of this second joint venture.[14] In 2006 Micron acquired Lexar, an American manufacturer of digital media products.[3]

The company again changed leadership in June 2007 with COO Mark Durcan becoming president.[15] In 2008 Micron converted the Avezzano chip fab, formerly a Texas Instruments DRAM fab, into a production facility for CMOS image sensors sold by Aptina Imaging.[16]

In 2008 Micron spun off Aptina Imaging, which was acquired by ON Semiconductor in 2014. Micron retained a stake in the spinoff.[17] However, the core company suffered setbacks and had to layoff 15 percent of its workforce in October 2008,[18][19] during which period the company also announced the purchase of Qimonda's 35.6 percent stake in Inotera Memories for $400 million.[20] The trend of layoffs and acquisitions continued in 2009 with the termination of an additional 2,000 employees,[21][22] and the acquisition of the FLCOS microdisplay company Displaytech.[23] Micron agreed to buy flash-chip maker Numonyx for $1.27 billion in stock in February 2010.[24]