A TSMC wafer fab designed for advanced 5nm process manufacturing in the US could drive changes to many semiconductor players within the supply chain, according to Digitimes Research.TSMC disclosed on May 15 its intention to build and operate a 5nm wafer fab in Arizona with monthly capacity designed for 20,000 wafer starts. Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024.The announcement by the world's top foundry chipmaker could suggest a potential change to the global chipmaking supply chain now located mainly in Asia, Digitimes Research indicated.Arizona is where the US has its major electronics industry, aerospace and defense manufacturing operations, as well as an IC industry cluster where Intel, Raytheon, Microchip, ON semiconductor, VLSI, Freescale, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Honeywell, Marvel, Amkor, Philips and Western Digital operate their plants.With TSMC likely to be involved in the IC industry cluster in Arizona, a bigger and complete local ecosystem could take shape, Digitimes Research believes. For the pure-play foundry itself, ensuring its business model and supply chain ecosystem locally is also a must for its fab project.Some major Taiwan-based partners of TSMC, such as OSAT providers, may be encouraged to set up production locally in Arizona to support the future needs of TSMC's 5nm wafer fab, Digitimes Research observed.TSMC also has plans to build new 5nm process capacity in Taiwan, where its major operations are located. It remains to be seen whether its 5nm fab investment in the US will affect its ongoing expansion project at its new Fab 18 in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP).

Global top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments in April grow 12% on month to reach a new record for the month, as parts of their shipments originally scheduled for delivery in March were deferred to April, and demand for notebooks from users working and studying from home in mature markets was stronger than expected, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its notebook tracker.Despite being a slow season, Hewlett-Packard (HP) enjoyed strong growth in April, as it had in March. Dell experienced rising orders from the enterprise and education sectors in April, helping the US-based vendor advance to second place in vendors ranking, surpassing Lenovo, Digitimes Research's figures show.With China's domestic demand weaker than that of Europe and North America and with fierce competition from Huawei and Xiaomi in China's online channel, Lenovo's shipments underperformed its US-based competitors in April.The top-3 ODMs witnessed an on-month increase of 10% in their combined shipments in April. Quanta Computer remained the largest ODM for the second consecutive month in April, thanks to robust orders for Chromebooks and MacBooks.The notebook industry enjoys on-month shipment growth in AprilPhoto: Digitimes file photo

The US has emerged as winner in the latest round of trade disputes with China: TSMC has announced a plan to build a 5nm fab in Arizona, ending months of speculation about the possibility of the world's top pure-play foundry making such a move amid increasing pressure from the Trump administration. The coronavirus pandemic may have worsened the trade ties between the two countries, but the stay-at-home needs it has created are set to gift ODM Quanta Computer with a double-digit growth in notebook shipments in second-quarter 2020. Such needs have also been fueling growth for the server supply chain, with chassis maker Chenbro seeing robust demand from both the US and China.TSMC announces intention to build and operate 5nm fab in US: TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the US with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the US federal government and the State of Arizona.Quanta expects double-digit notebook shipment growth in 2Q20: Quanta Computer expects its notebook shipments to register double-digit sequential and on-year increases in the second quarter of 2020, with annual shipments still likely to grow from 2019 despite relatively unclear market prospects for the second half of the year, according to company vice chairman CC Leung.Server chassis maker Chenbro enjoys robust demand from US, China: Server chassis maker Chenbro Micom has seen robust demand for datacenter applications from the US and China, significantly driving up its revenues in the second quarter of the year, according to company president Maggi Chen.

Demand for servers and notebooks has been fueled by stay-at-home needs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which neverthess is disrupting production, logistics support, and labor supply, preventing components and chip suppliers from catching up with the pace of orders. Asustek says chips and components supply for notebooks remain tight. Asustek co-CEO Samson Hu notes that the stay-at-home economy has been significantly boosting sales for notebooks, but whether the momentum will continue in the third quarter remains questionable. Rigid PCB makers have the same worry about the notebook maket in the second half of the year.Components and labor shortages continue to haunt server supply chain: Despite clients' strong short lead-time orders, the server supply chain is currently facing shortages of both components and labor, hindering their shipments in the second quarter, according to industry sources.Asustek sees tight supply of notebook components: Coronavirus lockdowns in several Southeast Asian countries have disrupted supply of chips and components for notebooks and although the shortages have significantly improved recently with the countries beginning to ease some of the restrictions, related supply is still rather tight at the moment, according to Asustek Computer.Rigid PCB makers may see weak momentum from notebooks in 2H20: Despite a ramp-up in short lead-time orders for notebook applications, most Taiwan-based rigid PCB manufacturers are expected to see their annual revenues decline in 2020 as notebook-related shipment momentum may weaken significantly in the second half of the year, according to industry sources.

Electric bus maker Tron-e Technology will begin to ship electric bus chassis to Indonesia at the end of May 2020 and then India after the country lifts lockdown restrictions, according to the company.Tron-e said it has cooperated with electric bus dealers and/or assemblers in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore to cope with local regulations concerning electric bus operations. It will first obtain certification for its electric buses in a client's market before the client places orders for models on demand, Tron-e noted.Based on conditions of electric buses running in China, as temperatures rise by 10 degrees Celsius, service lives of battery packs will decrease by 50%, Tron-e indicated. To cope with high temperatures in Taiwan, Tron-e has developed battery packs with a liquid cooling system to prolong their service lives, Tron-e said, adding such battery packs can handle high-temperature environments in Southeast Asia.An electric bus chassis (front) made by Tron-e TechnologyPhoto: Company

Having made its debut in the Taiwan market in mid-2019, Singapore-based digital-based telecom service provider Circles.Life is ready to offer new mobile tariff plans and new services to local clients including digital finance, according to company sources.The MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) also aims to achieve its goal of securing a total of three million subscribers for its tailor-made and non-contractual mobile services in the local market in three years.As compared to the similar services it launched in Singapore at the initial stage, the number of subscribers Circles.Life has secured over the past 10 months in Taiwan was 25% higher than that it had in Singapore, and the number of Taiwanese patrons who have already visited its website has exceeded four million, according to Dick Lin, president of Circles.Life North East Asia.Circles.Life currently has nearly 88% of its users in Taiwan subscribe to an unlimited data tariff plan and it has also achieved a high point for its NPS (net promotor score) and customer satisfaction rate that are both higher than the industry's average in Taiwan, Lin said.For the next stage of its development in Taiwan, Circles.Life is to extend its mobile services to include digital finance, gaming, and recommendation of exclusive events related to telecom services, Lin said, noting that it is now in talks for possible cooperation with two major financial service firms in Taiwan.

Taiwan plays an increasingly important role for Micron Technology, which is ramping up production for its DDR4 DRAM chips built using 1znm process technology at its fab in Taichung. Meanwhile, robust demand for enterprise-use notebkks in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has given notebook chip suppliers clear order visibility through third-quarter 2020. And despite the pandemic creating pains for the handset market, VCSEL chip demand for 5G applications and smartphones is believed to be heading towards stable growth in the long term.Micron ramping 1znm DRAM chip output in Taiwan: Micron Technology has gradually scaled up production of DDR4 DRAM chips built using 1z-nanometer process technology at its factory site in central Taiwan, according to sources familiar with the matter.Commercial notebook chips order visibility clear through 3Q20: Taiwan-based IC design houses continue to see an influx of additional orders from major brand vendors, with clear order visibility for diverse niche and peripheral chips extending to late third-quarter 2020, according to industry sources.VCSEL chips demand on track for stable expansion: Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser chip demand for 5G base station equipment, networking devices and even optical communications applications has got on track for stable expansion, serving as long-term revenue support for the supply chain, according to industry sources.

Taiwanese researchers have developed an explainable AI module that can explain reasons behind results of facial recognition.MOST Joint Research Center for AI Technology and All Vista Health Care at National Taiwan University (NTU), an AI research center established at NTU and sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), on May 11 unveiled its explainable AI module xCos.Currently for AI-based recognition, data input and results are known, but the criteria for and process of judgment leading to the recognition results are unknown, said NTU professor Winston Hsu, leader of the xCos project sponsored by MOST.xCos can explain reasons behind results of AI facial recognition and can help developers of AI-based recognition technologies inspect mechanisms of recognition systems to see whether the judgment is reasonable and thus improve the systems, Hsu noted.xCos can be generally matched with AI-based facial recognition systems, Hsu said, adding the AI research center is also promoting application of xCos to AI-based decision making other than facial recognition. For example, when AI-based decision making predicts that a power plant will increase power generation in the next hour, xCos can explain that this because the weather conditions have changed or there will be festivities.Hsu won first place at Disguised Faces in the Wild competition at a 2018 conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition taking place in Salt Lake, Utah, with overall accuracy of over 90%.MOST minister Chen Liang-gee in disguise testing AI-based facial recognitionPhoto: MOST

Notebook demand may be robust at this moment to support stay-at-home needs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which nevertheless is casting a shadow over third-quarter 2020 outlook for notebook ODMs. The pandemic has worsened Washington-Beijing relations with the Trump administration now reportedly increasing pressure on TSMC to build wafer fabs in the US, but the Taiwan-based foundry house has maintained it has no plans to build one in the US. For PCB maker Unimicron, order visibility for ABF substrates is clear through at least the third quarter, but thee is still a chance that clients may postpone product launches due to the pandemic.Notebook ODMs see clouded 3Q20: Notebook ODMs Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Inventec and Wistron are all expected to enjoy strong shipments in the second quarter, but prolonged impacts from the coronavirus pandemic have cast a shadow over their shipments in the following quarter, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.No specific plans yet for US fab, says TSMC: TSMC has always been evaluating potential locations for an advanced wafer fab overseas, including the US, but no specific plans have been put in place yet, according to the pure-play foundry.Unimicron embraces brisk orders for ABF substrates: Unimicron Technology has seen clear order visibility for ABF substrates at least through the third quarter, with the orders mainly for 5G infrastructure, networking and HPC chips applications, according to the Taiwan-based IC substrate and PCB maker.

Asustek is a clear market leader in gaming smartphones, but it is seeing growing competition from others. Lenovo reportedly has headhunted a key executie from Asustek' ROG Phone team, in a bid to accelerate its development of gaming smartphones. In the PCB market, Taiwan-based Zhen Ding and Unimicron have been keen to extend their leaderships over competitors by planning to spend big on technology R&D and production capacity expansions, despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has deterred others from making major investments. But the pandemic is expected to affect sales at Taiwan's three major pure-play foundry houses in the second half of 2020. Digitimes Research has cut its full-year forecast for Taiwan's foundry sector.Lenovo fast tracks gaming smartphone biz by headhunting talent from Asustek: Lenovo is set to unveil a new gaming smartphone later in May as the company has recently headhunted a key executive from Asustek Computer's ROG Phone team and seen its R&D capability of gaming smartphones significantly enhanced, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.Zhen Ding, Unimicron looking to extend lead over peers via bold capex injection: The coronavirus pandemic may force many Taiwan-based PCB makers to slow down their capacity expansion plans in the short term due to uncertain market prospects, but Zhen Ding Technology and Unimicron seem unaffected and will see their capital expenses hit new highs again in 2020 seeking to further strengthen their market and technology leaderships over peers in the longer term, according to industry sources.Digitimes Research cuts Taiwan foundry output value forecast for 2020: Digitimes Research has revised downward its Taiwan foundry output value forecast this year, as end-market demand is likely to disappoint due to the prolonged pandemic.