[2] Headquartered in Munich, Qimonda was a 300 mm manufacturer and was one of the top suppliers of DRAM products for the PC and server markets.

At its height in 2007, Qimonda employed approximately 13,500 personnel worldwide, from whom 1,800 were employed in R&D with access to four 300 mm manufacturing sites and operating six major R&D facilities, and included a chip packaging complex in Vila do Conde, Portugal, and its lead R&D center in Dresden, Germany, in total covering three continents.

During this time, and on into September 2008, the price of DRAM continued to decline due to market oversupply, resulting in significant corporate financial losses throughout 2008.

In Chinese, “Qi”, pronounced as "ch-ee', stands for breathing and flowing energy, while “monda” denotes “world” in Latin-based languages.

[3] Qimonda was primarily reliant on its Deep Trench technology in comparison to the stack capacitor systems of its rival manufacturers.

[8] On February 3, 2009, Qimonda AG announced the first 46 nm working production chips using its Buried Wordline technology, fabricated at its Dresden 300 mm plant.

[9] In October 2008, major restructuring was announced to try to reduce losses and re-align the company within the struggling DRAM sector.

Other restructuring included the complete closure of the Raleigh R&D facility and the termination of the back-end component and module manufacturing site in Dresden.

The continuing fall in the spot price of commodity DRAM resulted in Qimonda’s 75 nm Deep Trench technology no longer being economically viable.

The decision was taken in November 2008 to cease production of all commodity DRAM at their Dresden and Richmond 300 mm manufacturing sites.

This left the Dresden site’s production capability severely under-utilised (although a significant proportion of the line utilization remained as technology development).

On December 21, 2008, Qimonda AG issued a press release stating that they had secured a financial package of €325 million for the ramp up of Buried Wordline technology.

However, without financial support from the parent company or access to revenue from sales (which went to Qimonda AG) there were few options available to QNA.

On September 16, 2008, Qimonda North America announced that no funding would be issued for merit increases or promotions as part of the year-end appraisal process in order to reduce costs.

On October 13, 2008, Qimonda North America announced that it was closing its 200 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA, resulting in the loss of 1200 jobs.

On February 3, 2009, Qimonda North America announced the closure by April of its remaining 300 mm wafer fabrication plant in Richmond, VA.

[12] The company also published its yearly accounts, which had been delayed several times from its normal release date at the end of October 2008.

In a press release, CEO Kin Wah Loh stated, “German insolvency laws offers [sic] the opportunity to accelerate the restructuring process that has already been started in order to reposition the company back onto a solid base”.

In the days after the announcement, general DRAM spot market prices increased by a peak of 26% from their lowest recorded levels in January.

The Dresden site plodded ahead with 46 nm Buried Wordline development and produced the first working samples at the beginning of February 2009.

Michael Jaffe, the insolvency administrator appointed by a German bankruptcy court, announced that Qimonda is closer to liquidation.

The suit alleges that employees were not given their 60-day written notice of termination or 60 days' severance pay required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (dubbed WARN).

On February 18, 2009 (two days before filing for bankruptcy), the Richmond Times-Dispatch posted an article stating that QNA CFO Miriam Martinez sent out notices to previously laid-off employees informing them that Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond were now not in a financial position to honor its severance agreements to those affected employees from the (previous) 200 mm line closure announced in October 2008.

Those employees remaining with the company from February 20 onwards would only receive pay and benefits from that day forward, up to a maximum of $10,950.

The Richmond fab would not be capable of 46 nm BWL manufacture without substantial new equipment investment, requiring money that Qimonda did not have.

On June 22, 2009, Qimonda Richmond is filing a petition in bankruptcy court to allow 46 employees to receive a bonus payment totaling $1.24 million.

Qimonda has other strategic alliances with China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Venture Co., Ltd., SMIC, Winbond Electronics Corporation, IBM, Altis, AMD (for ATI graphics products), Toppan Photomasks, Spansion, and Sandisk.