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Monday 31 August 2026

South Korea risks 'HBM 2.0' trap in emerging CPO market

Co-packaged optics (CPO) is emerging as a critical next-generation technology for AI infrastructure, but unless South Korea strengthens its integration and validation capabilities, it risks being left with component-level capabilities while overseas players retain control of platforms and higher-value parts of the ecosystem.

Monday 31 August 2026

China silicon wafers enter AI-led upcycle: prices rise, 12-inch capacity expands

Hangzhou Lion Microelectronics plans to invest about CNY3 billion (approx. US$446 million) in a new 12-inch silicon wafer project in Jiaxing, expanding into a market where AI demand is lifting volumes and prices while China still relies heavily on imported large-diameter wafers.

Saturday 29 August 2026

Qualcomm's HBC play pulls Samsung and SK hynix into a new race beyond HBM

The AI infrastructure race has spent the past few years fixated on high-bandwidth memory as one of the most indispensable building blocks of accelerated compute. Yet as model sizes, context windows and inference workloads continue to expand, the bottleneck is increasingly shifting from how much memory can be stacked toward how efficiently data can move between memory and compute.

Friday 28 August 2026

Update: ABF substrate maker Unimicron searched in origin-labeling probe

(The latest status of the probe as of August 29th is updated below.)

Friday 28 August 2026

Long-term contracts tie up InP capacity due to data center optics demand

Compound semiconductor supply-chain players say China has recently eased some substrate export controls, but the upgrade of high-frequency transmission in AI data centers toward 200G and 400G has made optical communications a key technology breakthrough, creating a severe indium phosphide (InP) substrate shortage and sparking a trend toward signing long-term contracts and locking up capacity to secure stable supply.

Thursday 27 August 2026

HBM hybrid bonding delayed by 300°C heat and CMP dishing

As high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stack counts continue to rise, the industry originally anticipated that hybrid bonding (HB), a next-generation packaging solution, would be officially introduced with HBM5. However, process control challenges and cost barriers are threatening to delay that timeline. Simultaneously, thermal management is emerging as the central bottleneck for the memory sector.

Thursday 27 August 2026

Doosan thins memory-package CCL insulation to 13µm

Doosan Corporation's Electro-Materials BG has developed copper-clad laminate (CCL) technology that reduces the prepreg (PPG) insulating layer used in memory semiconductor package substrates from about 18µm to 13µm, and is preparing the material for mass production as thinner package designs raise the technical demands on substrate materials.

Thursday 27 August 2026

AI glass substrate race shifts toward reliability and mass production

The competition to develop glass substrates for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor packaging is intensifying, with Japanese and South Korean manufacturers pursuing different approaches to solve the reliability challenges created by increasingly large and complex packages.

Wednesday 26 August 2026

Record mid-2026 growth for WUS Printed Circuit and China's pivot to ultra-high-layer PCBs

The global hardware supply chain is undergoing a structural transformation, driven by an unprecedented surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure investment. "This shift has brought unprecedented market opportunities to the industry," noted WUS Printed Circuit (Kunshan). The major supplier of high-end printed circuit boards (PCBs) reported explosive growth in its mid-2026 financial results.

Wednesday 26 August 2026

Kyocera to ramp up MLCC production for AI servers with JPY60B investment

Japanese components maker Kyocera is making a major push to capture surging AI demand. As part of its mid-term growth strategy toward FY2031, the company plans to begin mass production of next-generation multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) for AI servers by the end of March 2027. Production will take place at its Kokubu Block within the newly renamed Kagoshima Kirishima Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Tuesday 25 August 2026

Nexperia China rebuilds 12-inch local supply chain after 330 days

Nexperia China said it has rebuilt a domestic 12-inch wafer supply chain after 330 days of overseas wafer supply disruptions, unveiling the new platform at a press conference outlining its new direction. The company said complete China-based manufacturing supply chains have now been established for metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and logic IC products.

Tuesday 25 August 2026

AI's power crunch hits Taiwan: foundry capacity tightens, chip prices climb into 2H26

AI data centres are becoming a new stress point for the global power and semiconductor supply chain. As facilities shift towards megawatt-scale architectures, demand is rising for power semiconductors, battery backup systems, liquid cooling, grid capacity and low-carbon electricity.

Tuesday 25 August 2026

OmniVision's CIS business slips, but machine vision and robotics surge 71%

OmniVision Group reported a sharp drop in first-half 2026 profit as weakness in consumer electronics and automotive electronics weighed on its core image sensor business, even as machine vision, robotics and edge AI emerged as faster-growing sources of revenue.

Tuesday 25 August 2026

Commentary: Nvidia's 15% hike piles pressure on the AI supply chain, lifts ASIC prospects

Nvidia has reportedly notified major customers that server systems using its AI chips will rise by more than 15%, with the new pricing set to apply to models shipping from early 2027, including Grace Blackwell and the next-generation Vera Rubin platform. The move is expected to ripple through the chip and system supply chain, while industry figures say it could also lift the appeal of inference ASICs.

Monday 24 August 2026

TPK TGV pilot line to start by September, Thailand plant eyes 2027 ramp

TPK Holding is accelerating its move from consumer touch panels into semiconductors, with its Through Glass Via (TGV) pilot line in Taoyuan, Taiwan set to begin operations in August or September. The company is also working with leading outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers on the project, while its new Thailand production base aims to complete trial runs by year-end and begin volume production in early 2027.

Monday 24 August 2026

AI chip boom lifts South Korean semiconductor materials makers' profits in 2Q26

The AI semiconductor investment boom is increasingly spilling over into the materials supply chain. South Korea's major semiconductor materials suppliers broadly improved profitability in the second quarter of 2026, as stronger demand for advanced materials drove sharp operating profit growth. With customers expected to expand capacity from 2027 onward, the sector could see another wave of revenue growth.

Monday 24 August 2026

CPO hurdles linger as 800G and 1.6T SiPh surge, says analyst

Challenges around co-packaged optics (CPO) remain unresolved, but they have not slowed the rapid rise of 800G and 1.6T silicon photonics, DIGITIMES analyst Kiwi Hsu said on August 20 at a semiconductor industry forum in Taipei. He said demand for AI cluster interconnects continues to expand, driving exponential growth in the output value of optical communications.

Saturday 22 August 2026

Manz Asia says yield is key to glass core mass production

As AI chips continue to grow in size, the shift in advanced packaging from 300 mm wafers to square panels is becoming clearer, driving parallel development of new packaging technologies including FOPLP, CoPoS, and Glass Core. Manz Asia general manager Robert Lin said yield will determine whether Glass Core can move into mass production.

Friday 21 August 2026

China silicon wafer maker NSIG nears 1.2 million monthly 300mm capacity after 90% shipment jump

National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) reported a 36.51% rise in first-half 2026 revenue as shipments of 300mm semiconductor silicon wafers increased more than 90%, though continued R&D spending, currency movements and inventory impairments widened its net loss.

Thursday 20 August 2026

China reportedly delays germanium, quartz clearances, impacting Taiwan optics and aerospace suppliers

China has reportedly delayed customs clearance for critical materials — including germanium, quartz-based materials and neodymium magnets — since 2025, lengthening delivery times for Taiwanese aerospace and optical suppliers and, in some cases, costing them orders.

Thursday 20 August 2026

Chinese SiC substrate maker SICC hits record Q2; 8-inch wafers top 50% of core revenue

SICC reported stronger first-half 2026 revenue and margins as its 8-inch silicon carbide substrate business gained scale, highlighting how the industry's migration to larger wafers is beginning to reshape SiC economics across electric vehicles and AI power infrastructure.

Thursday 20 August 2026

Asia Optical eyes Metalens, CPO, and AI cooling opportunities; digital camera shipments to surpass 4 million units

Asia Optical delivered strong second-quarter financial results while accelerating its strategic expansion across optical technologies. Key growth drivers include Metalens and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), with digital camera shipments confirmed to top 4 million units in 2026.

Thursday 20 August 2026

High-end PCB supply tightens as CCL expansions face delays

As AI applications demand faster data transmission from PCBs, M8 and higher-grade copper-clad laminate (CCL) materials are becoming increasingly mainstream in server boards. The shift is creating a supply gap, prompting suppliers in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and China to race to add capacity for higher-margin materials.

Wednesday 19 August 2026

Manz Asia targets PLP demand with three lines and three sizes

Manz Asia is broadening its push into panel-level packaging (PLP) as interest in the technology continues to rise. General manager Robert Lin said the company has shipped more than 50 panel-level electrochemical deposition (ECD) systems cumulatively from 2016 to 2026, covering sizes from 310mm to 700mm and spanning both R&D and production equipment.

Wednesday 19 August 2026

PLP splits roles as FOPLP focuses on cost and CoPoS courts AI chips

As AI chips move toward larger dies and higher integration, advanced packaging is shifting from 300mm wafers to square panel manufacturing. In panel-level packaging (PLP), FOPLP and CoPoS have emerged as the two hottest keywords, while glass-based technologies remain further ahead on the roadmap.

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