The company's Japan units have also filed for bankruptcy in that country. But Spansion said its subsidiaries in other countries have not filed for bankruptcy protection.

The recession has been hard on the global chip industry. Chip manufacturers such as Spansion and Qimonda are normally impacted worse during downturns because of the massive amounts of money they have to spend to build new chip factories, which cost around US$3 billion each.

So far, only South Korea and Taiwan have signalled a willingness to help chip makers during the recession, while the U.S. has focused on financial institutions and auto makers.

Worldwide chip revenue is expected to fall 20 percent year-on-year to $199.2 billion this year, according to In-Stat. Industry revenue won't return to 2007 levels until at least 2012, the market researcher added.