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92 IC Wafer Fabs Closed or Repurposed From 2009-2017 (2018.03.02)
Since the global economic recession of 2008-2009, the IC industry has been on a mission to pare down older capacity (i.e., ≤200mm wafers) in order to produce devices more cost-effectively on larger wafers. The spree of merger and acquisition activity and the migration to producing IC devices using sub-20nm process technology has also led suppliers to eliminate inefficient wafer fabs |
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Samsung Electronics Breaks Ground on New EUV Line in Hwaseong (2018.02.26)
Samsung Electronics announced that it broke ground on a new EUV (extreme ultraviolet) line in Hwaseong, Korea, aiming to maintain its leadership in state-of-the-art semiconductor technology.
With this new EUV line, Samsung will be able to strengthen its leadership in the single nanometer process technology by responding to market demand from various applications |
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Integrated Circuit Technology Advances Continue to Amaze (2018.02.22)
The success and proliferation of integrated circuits has largely hinged on the ability of IC manufacturers to continue offering more performance and functionality for the money. Driving down the cost of ICs (on a per-function or per-performance basis) is inescapably tied to a growing arsenal of technologies and wafer-fab manufacturing disciplines as mainstream CMOS processes reach their theoretical, practical, and economic limits |
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Imec Introduces CMOS Chip With 16,384 Micro-electrodes and 1,024 Channels (2018.02.13)
Imec has designed and fabricated a 16,384-electrode, 1,024-channel micro-electrode array (MEA) for high-throughput multi-modal cell interfacing. The chip offers intracellular and extracellular recording, voltage- and current-controlled stimulation, impedance monitoring and spectroscopy functionalities thereby packing the most cell-interfacing modalities on a single chip, and being the only one to enable multi-well assays |
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Q4 2017 Taiwan IC Revenue Totaled NT$675.5 Billion, 4.9% Increase On-year (2018.02.13)
The TSIA survey showed that Q4 2017 Taiwan IC revenue as a whole (including design, manufacturing, packaging and testing) totaled NT$675.5 billion(US$22.2B) (up 5.1% on-quarter and 4.9% increase on-year).
The revenue wad with NT$160 |
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ASML Increases its Dominance of Semiconductor Lithography Market in 2017 (2018.02.12)
ASML’s dominance in the semiconductor equipment market continued in 2017, according to the report “Sub-100nm Lithography: Market Analysis and Strategic Issues,” recently published by The Information Network, a New Tripoli, PA-based market research company |
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Mobile System on Chip Designs, Embedded Processing Lift MPU Market (2018.02.02)
The recently released 2018 edition of IC Insights’ McClean Report shows that the fastest growing types of microprocessors in the last five years have been mobile system-on-chip (SoC) designs for tablets and data-handling cellphones and MPUs used in embedded-processing applications |
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ASE and Cadence Deliver First System-in-Package EDA Solution (2018.02.01)
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan - Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. and Cadence Design Systems today announced they have collaborated to release a System-in-Package (SiP) EDA solution that addresses the challenges of designing and verifying Fan-Out Chip-on-Substrate (FOCoS) multi-die packages |
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Groundbreaking for TSMC 5nm Factory Estimated for 2020 (2018.01.29)
TAIPEI, Taiwan - TSMC on last Friday in Southern Taiwan Science Park held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of construction on their Fab 18 factory with CEO Morris Chang personally presiding over the ceremony. Construction and installation are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 with mass production commencing early in 2020 |
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Samsung Strengthens Its Foundry Customer Support With New SAFE Foundry Ecosystem Program (2018.01.25)
Samsung Electronics has announced today its continued commitment to first-pass silicon success for its foundry customers’ chip designs by launching the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) program.
The SAFE program ensures deep collaboration between the Samsung Foundry |
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GUC Celebrates Two Decades of Innovation & Lofty Dreams (2018.01.22)
HSINCHU, Taiwan - Global Unichip Corporation (GUC) today celebrates its 20th anniversary with a party at its Hsinchu, Taiwan headquarters themed around "Celebrate Two Decades of Innovation and Lofty Dreams". The company was established on January 22, 1998 |
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Samsung Electronics Starts Producing Industry’s First 16-Gigabit GDDR6 (2018.01.18)
Samsung Electronics today announced that it has started mass production of the industry’s first 16-gigabit (Gb) Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) memory for use in advanced graphics processing for gaming devices and graphics cards as well as automotive |
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China’s Production Capacity of 300mm Wafer Will Approach 700,000 Pc/Month, Says TrendForce (2018.01.17)
According to TrendForce’s latest report, Breakdown Analysis of China’s Semiconductor Industry, many fabs are being built in China with high capital expenditures, attracting attention from the industry. In particular, new fab construction projects like Silan Microelectronics and CanSemi etc |
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Foundries Have Decreased the Input for LCD Driver IC in 1Q18, Says TrendForce (2018.01.15)
The expanding markets for Internet of Things, automotive electronics, and smart home devices have driven the demand for power management integrated circuit (PMIC) and microcontrollers (MCU), etc., resulting in the 200mm foundries’ less input in LCD driver ICs |
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Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Forecast to Grow 7.5% in 2018, Gartner Says (2018.01.15)
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $451 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.5 percent from $419 billion in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. This represents a near doubling of Gartner's previous estimate of 4 percent growth for 2018 |
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Intel Advances Quantum and Neuromorphic Computing Research (2018.01.09)
At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Intel announced two major milestones in its efforts to research and develop future computing technologies including quantum and neuromorphic computing.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced the successful design, fabrication and delivery of a 49-qubit superconducting quantum test chip |
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Fabless IC Company Sales Top $100 Billion for First Time Ever (2018.01.07)
IC Insights released a listing of the 2017 top 50 fabless IC suppliers. Figure shows the top 10 ranking of fabless IC suppliers for 2017. Two China-based fabless companies made the top 10 ranking last year—HiSilicon, which sells most of its devices as internal transfers to smartphone supplier Huawei, and Unigroup, which includes the IC sales of both Spreadtrum and RDA |
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Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 22.2% in 2017; Samsung Takes Over No. 1 Position (2018.01.04)
Worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled $419.7 billion in 2017, a 22.2 percent increase from 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Undersupply helped drive 64 percent revenue growth in the memory market, which accounted for 31 percent of total semiconductor revenue in 2017 |
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SEMI Data Projects New Highs in Fab Equipment Spending; Samsung to Increase 128% (2018.01.03)
The year-end update to the SEMI World Fab Forecast report reveals 2017 spending on fab equipment investments will reach an all-time high of $57 billion. High chip demand, strong pricing for memory, and fierce competition are driving the high-level of fab investments, with many companies investing at previously unseen levels for new fab construction and fab equipment |
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Broadcom Announces Industry’s First Silicon-Proven 7nm IP for ASICs in Deep Learning and Networking (2017.12.21)
Broadcom today announced the industry’s first silicon-proven 7nm intellectual property (IP) for an ASIC platform targeting deep learning and networking applications. Based on TSMC 7nm process technology, the platform offers best-in-class IP cores which include high speed SerDes, HBM PHY, Die2Die PHY, mixed-signal IP, and foundation IP such as standard cells, SRAM, TCAM memory, and I/O cells |
