Taiwan-based IC material analysis and certification labs are expected to receive more windfall orders as mobile SoC and other IC suppliers are looking to ramp up shipments to clients other than Huawei following the implementation of the US fresh trade sanctions against the Chinese firm, according to industry sources.
Mobile SoC solution providers including MediaTek and Qualcomm are gearing up their efforts to push sales of 5G SoCs to Chinese handset vendors including Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, those who are likely to expand their market share in China at the expense of Huawei, said the sources.
The number of inspection and certification cases will see meaningful increases when a handset client uses 2-3 different SoC solutions, noted the sources.
Orders for RA (reliability analysis) services are also set to grow significantly as major chipmakers are accelerating the development of advanced packaging processes along their deployments for new 5G, AI and HPC chips, said the sources.
Most IC material analysis firms have seen their order visibility extend to the end of 2020, added the sources.
Among them, Materials Analysis Technology (MA-tek) and Sporton International have reported brisk sales for September.
Sporton posted revenues of NT$311 million (US$10.84 million) for September, up 2% on month and 21.9% on year. For January-September, revenues totaled NT$2.577 billion, up 16.1% on year.
MA-tek's revenues edged down 1.1% on month but up 20.4% on year to NT$274 million in September. Year-to-date revenues totaled NT$2.239 billion, up 21.76% on year.
Article translated by Steve Shen
