The Chinese telecom bidding market is on the upswing, as major tenders are being issued by key telecom operators.

Market rumors said Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are planning to resume the capacity expansion plans at its Pyeongtaek and Cheongju fabs, which were put on hold during the previous business downturn.

Taiwan-headquartered nFore has captured the attention of European and US automakers, with some visiting the company's site in private. The traction gained as carmakers found a significant portion of nFore's Digital Signal Processing (DSP) solutions when tearing down competitors' Telematics-Box (T-Box) and analyzing their software.

According to sources in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain, Samsung Electronics visited Taiwan at the end of March.

Japan-based Aisin, a Toyota Motor's affiliate, has been testing and producing Perovskite Solar Cells (PSC) at a small scale.

Renesas has repurposed an old wafer fabrication facility in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, into a power semiconductor plant.

Recently, growth in the TV market has slowed down.

As silicon carbide (SiC) substrates continued to evolve toward larger sizes, the 200mm substrate has become a hotly contested technology field.

The Advanced SoC Research for Automotive (ASRA), a research organization joined by 14 Japanese car and semiconductor companies, recently received funding from Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The money will facilitate the development of next-generation automotive SoC using chiplet technology.

In recent years, due to the development of the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market, the thermal compression (TC) bonder equipment produced by Hanmi Semiconductor has attracted attention. Besides supplying SK Hynix, it has recently signed an HBM TC bonder supply contract with Micron and may receive additional orders in the future.

According to reports from various Chinese media outlets such as National Business Daily and 21st Century Business Herald, top Chinese IC design service providers VeriSilicon Microelectronics and Brite Semiconductor have recently made significant strides. VeriSilicon was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Sci-Tech Innovation Board in 2020, while Brite Semiconductor, backed by major shareholder SMIC's production capacity, debuted on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board on April 11.

These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories in the week of April 8 - April 12.

China currently relies heavily on imports for over 85% of its semiconductor equipment needs, showcasing a self-supply rate of only about 14%.

Ultra large-sized LCD panel shipments are expected to surge in 2024, driven by China-based suppliers, which may lead to a price war in the market, threatening LG Display, the sole LCD panel major based in South Korea.

Taiwan-based automotive suppliers have seen their years-long efforts in EV components bear fruit.