TSMC has disclosed intentions to build a 5nm wafer fab in Arizona. But the foundry house is seeking US governmen subsidies that it says are needed to run the US fab at costs on about similar levels of TSMC's Taiwan-based plants. Meanwhile, MediaTek is expected to see strong demand for its 5G smartphone chips from Chinese vendors in second-half 2020, as the handset market starts recovering. Apple's upcoming iPhones reportedly will start volume production in July, injecting momentum into the 5G phone market.Government subsidies crucial for new TSMC fab establishment in US: TSMC is in talks with the US government about relevant subsidies for its new wafer fab in Arizona so that the foundry is able to implement the investment plan, said TSMC chairman Mark Liu at a press event right after the company's shareholders meeting on June 9.MediaTek 5G chip shipments may top 80 million units in 2020: MediaTek is likely to ship more than 80 million mobile SoCs for 5G handsets in 2020 mainly to Chinese handset vendors, which may push up its global market share in the segment to at least 40% and serve as a major growth driver for the company, according to industry sources.Apple 5G iPhones expected to begin volume production in July: Apple is expected to complete its second-phase engineering validation and testing (EVT 2) for its upcoming 5G iPhone series by the end of June, paving the way for volume production in July, according to industry sources.

Many first-tier international automotive components makers have been keen on collaborating with LiDAR developers trying to increase economies of scale for LiDAR devices, but high unit prices and slow revisions of laws governing autonomous driving remain major obstacles, according to Digitimes Research.France-based automotive components supplier Valeo has spent seven years helping Germany's automotive LiDAR sensor specialist Ibeo kick off mass production of such sensors for sedans. Korea's auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis and Sweden's CarTech specialist Veoneer have joined forces to assist US-based Velodyne in expanding volume production. Germany's Continental Group and Kapan's Koito will also integrate LiDAR devices with their existing automotive components.On another front, automakers including General Motors, Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen are planning to roll out robotaxi cars (with Level 4-5 autonomous driving) featuring LiDAR devices in 2020-2022, while Honda, Lexus, BMW and Volvo are also developing Level 3 autonomous vehicles with LiDAR. This indicates LiDAR will become a standard spec for Level 3 and above autonomous vehicles, up from the existing Level 2 ones, Digitimes Research notes.Nevertheless, Audi is mulling cancelling its Level 3 vehicles as the regulations governing autonomous vehicles have yet to be formulated or revised in many countries. Japan has allowed Level 3 autonomous cars to run on roads in the country starting April 2020, and the US, China and European Union have not readied their relevant regulations in this regard.This, coupled with the unit prices for LiDAR devices having yet to fall under US$200 as expected, will hinder such devices from being massively applied to autonomous vehicles and affect their volume shipments, Digitimes Research comments.

Fortune Electric has disclosed it has set up its first EV (electric vehicle) parking lot in combination with in-house-developed power charging facilities in Taipei.The facilities consist of charging piles, a lithium battery-based energy storage system, and a rooftop PV system, Fortune said.The parking fee is NT$30 (US$1.01) per hour, and charging is priced at NT$6.5/kWh for AC and NT$9.5/kWh for DC, Fortune noted.Fortune has set up many EV charging stations around Taiwan and used a cloud-based management platform to operate them. The company aims to increase the number of power charging stations to 150 by year-end 2020, including five fast-charging ones near highways.There were 2,017 EVs sold in the Taiwan market during January-May 2020.Fortune Electric's EV parking lot in TaipeiPhoto: Yihan Li, Digitimes, June 2020

Taiwan-based Bio Preventive Medicine (BPM) has disclosed it has obtained the EU's CE IVD (in vitro diagnostics) mark for its DNlite-IVD103 reagent used to predict diabetes patients' diabetic nephropathy, and has signed with Austria-based sales agents to begin shipping DNlite-IVD130 in mid-June.By detecting changes in a specific urinary biomarker and monitoring translational modification of the biomarker, DNlite-IVD130 can predict kidney conditions of a diabetes patient over 1-2 years, BPM said.DNlite-IVD130 will be used on a trial basis at diabetes centers in Austria and Germany initially, BPM noted. As Germany is the largest and most advance medical market in Europe, BPM hopes that the trial use is a pilot for adoption of DNlite-IVD130 in other EU countries, company chairman and CEO Karen Tseng indicated.BPM is expected to soon obtain official licenses for DNlite-IVD130 in other markets including Malaysia and Singapore.BPM showcased DNlite-IVD130 at the virtual congress of ERA (European Renal Association)-EDTA (European Dialysis and Transplant Association) during June 6-9, 2020 and is attending North America-based BIO Digital One-on-One Partnering during June 8-12.BPM's DNlite-IVD130Photo: Company

TSMC is fast advancing its manufacturing processes. The foundry maintains that its 3nm fab project remains on schedule, with the technology to be ready for risk production in 2021 followed by volume production in the second half of 2022. TSMC has already entered volume production for 5nm node, and it is reportedly developing variants for the 5nm process. Meanwhile, construction of 5G base stations is picking up momentum again, which is creating tight supply for optical filters.TSMC installing 3nm process fabrication lines: TSMC has been engaged in the installation of 3nm process fabrication lines and related facilities, and is keeping the progress on track, according to the pure-play foundry.TSMC 5nm technology said to be in more process variants: TSMC's 5nm technology will be offered in more process variants, including a further enhanced 5nm node in addition to 5nm Plus, according to sources at IC inspection services companies and chipmaking materials suppliers.Supply of 5G optical filters becomes tight: Optical filter makers have seen their capacities become tight recently due to a pick-up in components demand for 5G base stations from a number of countries, including China, Korea and the US, where local mobile operators are stepping up their 5G base station installations, according to industry sources.

Smartphone shipments may be declining this year due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, but memory vendors expect robust demand from the hadnset space as phone vendors increase the internal storage of their upcoming devices. The pandemic has decimated many sectors, with servers being one of the major exceptions. Mothernboard maker ASRock and high-spped transmission chip vendor ASMedia both expect robust salea and profits for 2020, thanks to demand for server applications. Although the car market has been hit hard by the virus, some belive demand will rebound in second-half 2020. HannStar Display is building a new automotive panel module line in Taiwan, expecting increasing demand from European and Japanese clients.Smartphone internal storage to reach 256GB: Smartphones are expected to increasingly come with 256GB or even 512GB of storage in 2020, thanks to brand vendors' launches of new 5G models and a gradual recovery in China's smartphone market, according to market sources.ASRock, ASMedia to see strong sales from server sector in 2020: Motherboard maker ASRock and ASMedia Technology, a fabless chipmaker specializing in high-speed transmission chips, are both expected to enjoy a substantial ramp-up in orders for server applications in 2020, according to industry sources.HannStar Display ramping up automotive panel module capacity: HannStar Display is building a new automotive panel module line in Taiwan as it is ramping up related capacity to satisfy increasing demand from clients in Europe and Japan.

Taiwan's Cathay Financial Holdings (CFH) has disclosed its technology center is developing an electric vehicle (EV) IoT blockchain financing platform through cooperation with EV charging service provider ChargeSmith and blockchain startup BSOS.The platform is based on Hyperledger Fabric, a modular blockchain framework for enterprises to develop blockchain-based solutions or application products, CFH said.Hyperledger Fabric is a permission blockchain infrastructure that allows designated nodes to participate in operation and maintenance of a blockchain and enables efficient execution of consensus algorithms to enhance applicability and reliability of enterprise-use blockchains, CFH noted.Hyperledger Fabric will be used to obtain EV owners' permission to collect data on their driving behavior including time intervals of driving, speeds, running distance and braking, CFH said. Such data will be encrypted and immediately transferred to the platform for CFH's property insurance and banking business units to provide real-time personalized financial services, CFH indicated.The platform is in PoC (proof of concept) process and expected to come into operation at the end of 2020.Besides CFH, CTBC Financial Holding has been in R&D of blockchain since 2016 and become a member of an international ecosystem led by US-based enterprise blockchain company R3. CTBC's subsidiaries, including Taiwan Life Insurance, CTBC Bank and CTBC Securities, have applied in-house-developed blockchain technology to business operation.

China-based NAND flash maker YMTC reportedly is looking to cross into brand SSD business in the third quarter and will focus on supplying the devices to PC makers. Meanwhile, Apple's new iPhones using OLED panels for 2021 may adopt LTPO backplane in order to reduce their power consumption. With Huawei under the US' new sanctions, Taiwan's IC substrate makers have begun turning to strife for more orders from other clients particularly those in the US.YMTC may unveil own-brand SSDs in 3Q20: China-based Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) reportedly will in third-quarter 2020 launch its own-brand SSDs adopting in-house-developed 64-layer 3D NAND flash, with target outlets including PC OEMs, according to industry sources.OLED screens of iPhones may adopt LTPO backplanes in 2021, say sources: Apple has yet to introduce its 5G iPhones for 2020, but its supply chain is already developing OLED screens using LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) backplane technology for next year's premium iPhone models, according industry sources.IC substrate makers shifting focus to US clients from Huawei: Taiwan-based IC substrate makers including Unimicron Technology and Na Ya PCB are gearing up to strengthen business ties with US clients seeking to offset expected losses of orders from China's Huawei/Hisilicon subject to tougher US trade sanctions starting September, according to industry sources.

As most schools worldwide have begun adopting online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for mobile computing devices from many countries' K-12 education sectors has been rising with Chromebooks currently seeing the highest shipments, according to Digitimes Research.The Japan government has recently launched the GIGA School program for its education sector with the program expected to significantly boosting shipments of the program's designated 11.6-inch touchscreen Chromebooks in 2020.As schools in North America, Japan and Europe were shut down to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus, most schools had distributed their procured notebooks to students for them to learn from home. Meanwhile, they also asked for emergency budget from governments to procure more notebooks in a bid to fulfill the insufficiency.Such demand is expected to drive up mobile computing device shipments to the worldwide K-12 education sector in 2020 by 32.3% on year to reach 42.1 million units.The US that is undermined significantly by the pandemic, and Japan that has rather limited online learning resources, are both treating Chromebooks as the key device for the one-student-with-one-machine projects for their K-12 education sectors. Such a strategy will allow shipments of Chrome OS-based computing device to surpass those of Windows-based one in the global education sector in 2020.Japan's GIGA School program, which offers a subsidy for each machine that is nearly US$120 higher than the average quote of the US' procurement orders, and provides total volumes over seven million units, has attracted a large number of brands to participate at the bidding. Device specifications of a 11.6-inch touchscreen Chromebook recommended by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is currently the most popular choice in Japan's education procurement market.In 2020, shipments of Chromebooks with 11.6-inch touchscreen functionality are expected to approach seven million units with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to have the highest shipments and Quanta Computer to obtain over 60% of related orders.

As more server makers and brands are relocating production lines from China to Taiwan or establishing new manufacturing facilities in the market, Taiwan's role in the server industry has grown more important. Meanwhile, the uprising demand for datacenter servers will continue benefiting Taiwan-based PCB makers in the second half of 2020 despite the upstream supply chain rumor about witnessing datacenter clients decelerating their order pull-ins. Memory ASPs have been declining throughout the second quarter and may have a chance to resume growth in the fourth quarter.Taiwan emerging as new server manufacturing hub: Taiwan is set to become a new manufacturing hub for servers, as Supermicro, Quanta Computer, Wiwynn and others as well as related components makers are fast expanding production capacity to meet growing demand from datacenters and enterprises, according to supply chain sources.PCB orders for datacenter servers to stay robust in 3Q20: In response to the upstream supply chain rumor claimed that several key datacenter players have slowed down the pull-ins of their server component order recently, sources from PCB makers said that they have not seen any deceleration in orders from datacenter clients for the third quarter of 2020.Memory ASPs falling in 2Q20, likely to rebound in 4Q20: Overall ASPs for memory are trending downwards in the second quarter of 2020 along with spot market price falls despite rises in contract prices, but they are expected to resume growth momentum in the fourth quarter of the year, according to Gerry Chen, general manager of memory modules maker Team Group.