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Investments AFS (Details) (USD $)
12 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Mar. 31, 2014
Mar. 31, 2013
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]      
Available-for-sale Securities $ 1,734,380,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecurities $ 1,676,894,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecurities  
Amount of short-term investments 1,351,054,000us-gaap_ShortTermInvestments 878,182,000us-gaap_ShortTermInvestments  
Amount of long-term investments 383,326,000us-gaap_LongTermInvestments 798,712,000us-gaap_LongTermInvestments  
Carrying value of available-for-sale investment previously classified as non-marketable cost-method investment 3,600,000mchp_Carryingvalueofavailableforsaleinvestmentpreviouslyclassifiedasnonmarketablecostmethodinvestment    
Proceeds for sale of available-for-sale securities 273,900,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGainsLossesSaleProceeds 135,300,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGainsLossesSaleProceeds 40,500,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGainsLossesSaleProceeds
Realized gain on available-for-sale investments 18,469,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGains 0us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGains 0us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesGrossRealizedGains
Corporate bonds and debt [Member]      
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]      
Available-for-sale Securities 926,929,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecurities
/ us-gaap_MajorTypesOfDebtAndEquitySecuritiesAxis
= us-gaap_CorporateBondSecuritiesMember
943,966,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecurities
/ us-gaap_MajorTypesOfDebtAndEquitySecuritiesAxis
= us-gaap_CorporateBondSecuritiesMember
 
Amount of corporate debt securities with no contractual maturity excluded from estimated fair value of available-for-sale securities 6,200,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesDebtMaturitiesWithoutSingleMaturityDateFairValue
/ us-gaap_MajorTypesOfDebtAndEquitySecuritiesAxis
= us-gaap_CorporateBondSecuritiesMember
6,200,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecuritiesDebtMaturitiesWithoutSingleMaturityDateFairValue
/ us-gaap_MajorTypesOfDebtAndEquitySecuritiesAxis
= us-gaap_CorporateBondSecuritiesMember
 
Equity Securities [Member]      
Schedule of Available-for-sale Securities [Line Items]      
Available-for-sale Securities $ 13,166,000us-gaap_AvailableForSaleSecurities
/ us-gaap_MajorTypesOfDebtAndEquitySecuritiesAxis
= us-gaap_EquitySecuritiesMember