Segment Information (Notes)

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

GEOGRAPHIC AND SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Company's reporting segments include semiconductor products and technology licensing.  The Company does not allocate operating expenses, interest income, interest expense, other income or expense, or provision for or benefit from income taxes to these segments for internal reporting purposes, as the Company does not believe that allocating these expenses is beneficial in evaluating segment performance.  Additionally, the Company does not allocate assets to segments for internal reporting purposes as it does not manage its segments by such metrics. The technology licensing segment is the result of the acquisition of SST in the first quarter of fiscal 2011 and thus for fiscal 2010, net sales and gross profit are solely attributable to the semiconductor product segment.

The following table represents revenues and gross profit for each segment (amounts in thousands):

	Years ended March 31,
	2012				2011				2010
	Net Sales		Gross Profit		Net Sales		Gross Profit		Net Sales		Gross Profit
Semiconductor products	$	1,296,175	$	709,754	$	1,415,137	$	806,398	$	947,729	$	534,242
Technology licensing	87,001		82,640		72,068		68,038		—		—
	$	1,383,176	$	792,394	$	1,487,205	$	874,436	$	947,729	$	534,242

The Company sells its products to distributors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in a broad range of market segments, performs on-going credit evaluations of its customers and, as deemed necessary, may require collateral, primarily letters of credit.  The Company's operations outside the U.S. consist of product assembly and final test facilities in Thailand, and sales and support centers and design centers in certain foreign countries.  Domestic operations are responsible for the design, development and wafer fabrication of products, as well as the coordination of production planning and shipping to meet worldwide customer commitments.  The Thailand assembly and test facility is reimbursed in relation to value added with respect to assembly and test operations and other functions performed, and certain foreign sales offices receive compensation for sales within their territory.  Accordingly, for financial statement purposes, it is not meaningful to segregate sales or operating profits for the assembly and test and foreign sales office operations.  Identifiable long-lived assets (consisting of property, plant and equipment) by geographic area are as follows (amounts in thousands):

	March 31,
	2012		2011
United States	$	314,339	$	330,046
Thailand	186,098		193,729
Various other countries	16,174		16,738
Total long-lived assets	$	516,611	$	540,513

Sales to unaffiliated customers located outside the U.S., primarily in Asia and Europe, aggregated approximately 82%, 80% and 77% of consolidated net sales for the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.  Sales to customers in Europe represented 23%, 23% and 25% of consolidated net sales for the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.  Sales to customers in Asia represented 56%, 57% and 51% of consolidated net sales for each of the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.  Within Asia, sales into China, including Hong Kong, represented 24%, 25% and 25% of consolidated net sales for the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.  Sales into Taiwan represented 15%, 13% and 10% of consolidated net sales for the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.  Sales into any other individual foreign country did not exceed 10% of the Company's net sales for any of the years presented.

No single end customer accounted for 10% or more of the Company's net sales or accounts receivable balances during the years ended March 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010. The Company's largest distributor accounted for approximately 10% of its net sales in each of fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2011 and approximately 12% of its net sales in fiscal 2010. These net sales are reported in the semiconductor products segment.