Renesas Japan MCU factory was struck by lightning, and production may be lost for up to 2 weeks

Gasgoo News on July 6, Renesas Electronics said in a statement that at 5:43 a.m. Japan time on July 5, due to heavy rain caused by Typhoon No. 4 "Aere", the company was located in Kumamoto. A power line at the Kawajiri factory in Kumamoto City, prefecture was struck by lightning, and the instantaneous voltage dropped, causing the factory's production equipment to suspend production and lose production for up to about twoweeks.It is reported that the company's Kawajiri factory mainly produces low-end MCUs.

In response to transient voltage drops, Renesas has been implementing emergency measures, such as installing an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).But the voltage drop lasted longer than any accident in the past decade and any estimates the company had made, causing a temporary shutdown of about 90 percent of production equipment at the Kawajiri plant.

The transient voltage drop is expected to affect products being produced at the Kawajiri plant, with a maximum loss of about 2 weeks of production, but Renesas is working hard to restore production.Renesas is restarting production equipment at the Kawajiri plant. Some production processes have resumed operations on July 6, and it is expected to resume full production capacityon July 11.

Image source: Renesas

Renesas' plants in Japan have suffered other natural disasters and accidents, such as earthquakes and fires.On the evening of March 16 this year, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred off the coast of Fukushima, Japan. Renesas said at the time that its three factories in Japan had also suspended production due to the earthquake.The three factories, Naka, Takasaki, and Yonezawa, were all near the earthquake-stricken area, and two of them had power outages overnight.Among them, Renesas' Naka and Yonezawa factories produce microcontrollers for automobiles and industry, while the Takasaki factory produces PMOS chips for converting AC and DC currents.

In March last year, a fire broke out at the Renesas Naka factory, which burned down 11 machines, accounting for 2% of the factory's production equipment.