The ever-growing demand for high-performance computing (HPC) chips to support 5G and AI applications is ushering in a long-missed market recovery for ABF substrates needed for high-end processors, and Taiwan major makers Unimicron and Nan Ya PCB both have stressed that ABF substrates will be their...

Chip-on-film (COF) substrate suppliers JMC Electronics is expected to see its revenue and profit climb to record-high levels in the second quarter of 2019, driven mainly by a rally in COF substrate prices, according to market watchers.

Taiwan's flexible PCB makers are reporting low order visibility in the wake of the US ban on Huawei, whose impact is rippling across the smatphone market, with Apple probably also taking a hit. The memory sector is also being hit by low...

Taiwan power semiconductor MOSFET supply chain players are expected to see notable revenue pickups in the third quarter of 2019 with order visibility stretched through mid-August, partly because clients are moving to prepare inventories of MOSFET chips for PCs and notebooks that will see back-to-school...

Zhen Ding Technology and Flexium Interconnect, both of which are reportedly among the flexible PCB suppliers of Apple, see low order visibility, according to industry sources.

Despite growing economic uncertainty triggered by the US-China trade dispute, most Taiwan-based PCB makers still expect demand for rigid PCBs for networking device applications, particularly for switch and router products, to remain robust in the second half of 2019, according to industry sources.

Tong Hsing Electronic Industries, which provides ceramic substrates and niche-IC backend services, has elected its new board of directors with Yageo chairman Pierre Chen becoming new chairman.

Commenting on the US-China trade tensions and how they are affecting the ICT upstream supply chains in Taiwan, Japan and Korea, Digitimes president Colley Hwang has pointed out that the row is in fact a war between the two superpowers over control of technologies.

The feasibility of Taiwan's PCB makers relocating production from China to Southeast Asia or elsewhere along with major downstream assemblers of electronics devices is quite low, according to supply chain sources.

Several passive component companies have pushed back the schedule to install new equipment and facilities for additional production capacities, judging from a number of macro factors creating uncertainty on the demand side, according to industry sources.

Taiwan makers of flexible PCBs are gearing up to develop niche board products for mini LED and COF (chip on film) applications, which are expected to become their new growth drivers next to handsets, IoT devices and antennas, according to industry sources.

MLCC and chip resistor supplier Walsin Technology will carry on its capacity expansion project in Taiwan, but is cautious about its performance in the third quarter, according to company chairman Chiao Yu-heng.

Flexible PCB specialist Flexium Interconnect is looking to explore more application opportunities for its products beyond handsets, especially those for use in 5G and IoT devices, with 5G antenna modules likely to see explosive demand earlier, according to company chairman MC Cheng.

US-headquartered companies held 52% of the total worldwide IC market in 2018, followed by their fellow South Korea-based companies with a 27% share, according to IC Insights.

China ICT makers are keen on turning to Taiwan supply chain as they seek alternative import sources of discrete power semiconductor devices, especially medium- and high-end ones long dominated by US and Europe IDMs, to counter uncertainties of the US-China tariff war and trade sanctions on Huawei.

PCB manufacturer Wus Printed Circuit has put increased focus on high-end offerings including those for automotive and network equipment applications, and the efforts are bearing fruit.

As Huawei's handset shipments are expected to fall significantly on US trade ban, Taiwan PCB makers have moved to carry out risk diversification deployments by enhancing shipments to other handset brand vendors or developing diverse applications for their products, according to industry sources.

Chang Wah Technology (CWTC) continues to enhance its pre-mold quad flat no-lead (QFN) leadframe offerings, and has developed pre-mold metal substrate (PMMS) technology for the emerging 5G and automotive electronics applications, according to the company.

Taiwan's dedicated semiconductor materials and devices analysis, testing and verification labs, including Integrated Service Technology, (iST), Materials Aanalysis Technology (MA-tek) and Sporton International, are expected to see bright revenue prospects for the second half of 2019 and beyond, thanks...

Nvidia has announced its support for Arm CPUs. Nvidia is making available to the Arm ecosystem its full stack of AI and HPC software - which accelerates more than 600 HPC applications and all AI frameworks - by year's end. The stack includes all Nvidia Cuda-X AI and HPC libraries, GPU-accelerated AI...

Wahlee Industrial with its distributed optical communication components and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) materials has entered the supply chain for 5G devices including antenna modules, and applications including servers and handsets.

Compeq Manufacturing remains focused on growing its business in the any-layer HDI PCB segment, despite unfavorable global trade conditions that may deter customer demand.

Unimicron Technology is scheduled to break ground for a new plant in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan in July followed by equipment move-in a year later. The new facility is designed for the manufacture of IC substrates mainly for high-end CPU and GPU products, according to company president Maurice Lee.

PCB maker HannStar Board, after enjoying a significant increase in orders with short lead time in the second quarter of 2019, has turned conservative about orders for the second half of the year, despite it being the traditional peak season.

Epitaxial wafer supplier Visual Photonics Epitaxy Company (VPEC) has kicked off volume production for vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) components, and is expected to gain new orders for VCSELs for Android smartphones in the second half of 2019, according to company chairman MC Chen.