Micron Technology Inc. officially opened Tuesday a manufacturing facility in Xi¡¯an, China. The facility, the company¡¯s first manufacturing facility in China, is designed for assembly and test operations for DRAM, NAND flash memory and CMOS image sensors.

Micron hosted a ceremony at the facility with government and community officials on hand. The facility is expected to be built-out by the end of 2008 at an investment of $250 million and support up to 2,000 employees. The plant is Micron¡¯s second assembly and test facility in Asia, with its first being opened in Singapore in 1998.

"By opening this facility in Xi¡¯an, we are enabling customers and partners to design applications with service, support and quality from Micron, and we are pleased to be a growing part of the China technology industry," said Steve Appleton, Micron chairman, CEO and president, in a statement.

Micron first came to China in 2001 to service its growing customer base from an office in Xiamen. In 2004, Micron established Micron Semiconductor Shanghai with about 60 employees and branch offices in Beijing and Shenzhen to provide corporate, sales and marketing services. That same year, the company chose Shanghai as the location of one of its IC design centers and formed Micron Semiconductor Technology. With about 50 employees, Micron Semiconductor Technology is a key hub in the company¡¯s network for providing support to a variety of Asia-based mobile phone and consumer electronic device manufacturers.