Ofuna Technology has enjoyed a strong pull-in of orders from ABF substrate suppliers looking to carry out their capacity expansion projects, according to the Taiwan-based company specializing in mechanical drilling services and metal cutting equipment.

Wireless telecommunications has escaped the worst effects of the semiconductor shortage, and that semiconductors for cellular infrastructure equipment will continue to dodge significant shortages going forward. In addition, availability of chips for Wi-Fi access points and cellular phones will continue to improve through 2023, Strategy Analytics said in its recent report.

International IDMs including Infineon and STMicroelectronics continue stepping up production of automotive, industrial control and networking chips to meet ever-rising demand, outsourcing more backend operations for such chip solutions to partners in Taiwan, according to industry sources.

China-based pure-play foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) has reported first-quater 2022 sales, but omitted a revenue breakdown by manufacturing process nodes as it had usually disclosed previously.

Taiwan's first-tier IC design houses Novatek Microelectronics and Realtek Semiconductor are seeking more capacity support from foundry partners TSMC and UMC to fulfill new orders from new clients that are bolstering their growth despite a decline in demand for consumer chips, according to industry sources.

In 1984, Intel decided to exit the DRAM business, which marked the start of technology diversion between memories and logic IC. In hindsight, Intel's decision made sense. Memories and logic IC are very different in terms of design, manufacturing processes, equipment deployment, and market characteristics. It is common sense that a company should focus on pursuing excellence in one specific direction.

Optimistic about getting approval under India's chip incentive scheme, Vedanta has started to find customers before building its chip plant, while Ather Energy, one of the few electric two-wheeler vendors not caught in recent fire incidents in India, has received India's government funding.

The global semiconductor shortages have surfaced as early as 2019 when the US government imposed a ban on Huawei's products. The COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 exacerbated the problem as manufacturers have to suspend operations now and then during the peaks of infections.

Even though the Indian government has yet to announce the final list eligible for the US$10 billion incentive scheme for the semiconductor and display fabs, applicants have started looking for customers.

Shanghai-based analog chips foundry GTA Semiconductor has stepped up purchases from Naura Technology, ACM Research and other China-based semiconductor equipment makers to carry out its second-phase investment project in Lingang Special Area in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

When the memory industry can no longer leverage Moore's Law to create new value, it has to find new technologies to establish a new business model that can create new economic value.

Taiwan-based uPI Semiconductor, an Asustek Computer affiliate specializing in power management ICs, saw its net profits surge 135% on year to NT$401 million (US$13.4 million) in the first quarter of 2022. EPS for the quarter came to NT$5.20.

Taiwan's clean room engineering specialist Acter Group has seen a record high number of ongoing contract construction engineering projects, as semiconductor fabs in Taiwan and China continue their capacity expansion momentum.

IC design houses, particularly those specializing in chips for handsets and other mass-market device applications, are under pressure to lower their prices amid sluggish end-market demand. But price competition will be confined to only some chip segments in the short term as foundry costs remain high and overall chip shortages have yet to fully ease, according to industry sources.

In 2014, 3D NAND flash was introduced to the industry with 24 layers, and it co-existed with 2D NAND flash until 2017. 3D NAND flash gradually came to dominate the market with its high-density storage capacity and technologies, and its manufacturing process completely diverged from that of DRAM. The synergy of utilizing the same processes and equipment for the two memory types - DRAM and NAND - was completely gone, and the core of competitive strategies in the memory industry changed.

Networking device assembler Wistron NeWeb expects the shortage of MCUs, MOSFETs, power management ICs (PWM IC) and other chips demanding mature process manufacturing to persist and continue disrupting its output through the first quarter of 2023.

Texas Instruments (TI) has denied recent speculation that claims the analog chip vendor has dissolved its microcontroller R&D team stationed in Shanghai with plans to scale down its workforce in China.

With their bigger peers transitioning to 12-inch wafer manufacturing, Taiwan-based power management IC (PWM IC) suppliers expect more 8-inch fab capacities to be available to satisfy their demand next year.

South Korea-based semiconductor and display component supplier Wonik QnC is raising its investment in a new factory in Taiwan from KRW17 billion (US$13.43 million) to KRW30 billion, according to South Korean-language media The Elec.

On the first day of the Intel Vision 2022 event on May 10, Intel revealed an early look at the "Intel On Demand service," offering to help enterprises meet the needs of evolving workloads, product sustainability, and opportunities to scale systems near the data.

Intel has announced advancements across silicon, software and services, showcasing how it brings together technologies and the ecosystem to unlock business value for customers today and in the future.

Taiwan-based semiconductor equipment maker Trusval Technology remains optimistic about its business prospects for the second quarter, as its chipmaking customers are still stepping up order placements despite an unfavorable macro environment.

Let's take a moment to review the rise and fall of Taiwan's DRAM industry. Taiwan's DRAM industry came into being in the mid-1990s. In the beginning, although some companies wanted to self-develop related technologies, most companies chose to become competitive by exchanging production capacity for technology licensing with partners. This method certainly had some drawbacks, including that companies obtaining the licensed technologies could be controlled by their partners.

Taiwan-based gallium arsenide (GaAs) foundries and epi-wafer suppliers have started delivering epi-wafer samples, which are used in power amplifiers (PA) for Wi-Fi 7 radio-frequency front-end modules (RF FEM), according to industry sources.

Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) will be running its 12- and 8-inch fabs at full capacity utilization in the next couple of quarters, according to the pure-play foundry.