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Friday 4 September 2026
CPO testing shifts to mid-stage to avoid costly failures, Chroma says

Co-packaged optics (CPO) is forcing chipmakers and equipment suppliers to rethink where testing should take place, as long optical test times and the high cost of downstream failures raise the importance of screening optical engines before final package integration, according to Chroma ATE.

Friday 4 September 2026
TSMC urges HBM makers to design for X-ray inspection as packaging grows more complex
TSMC is calling for future HBM and DRAM designs to become more compatible with X-ray inspection, as increasingly complex advanced packaging makes buried defects harder to detect while raising concerns over radiation exposure to sensitive memory devices.
Friday 4 September 2026
From chips to physical AI: Experts urge Taiwan-US push for trusted drone supply chains at Semicon Taiwan 2026
Trustworthy supply chain concerns are extending beyond semiconductors to drones and other autonomous systems, now emerging as national strategic industries. At a Semicon Taiwan 2026 side forum, defense and industry experts from Taiwan and the US called for stronger production capacity, standardized interfaces, testing infrastructure and predictable government procurement to turn Taiwan's supply chain strengths into a globally trusted base for unmanned systems.
Friday 4 September 2026
The 'Copper Wall': inside the physical bottlenecks threatening to melt AI supercomputing boom
A decade ago, when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was developing the world's first NVLink-enabled deep learning system, the DGX-1, the tech industry was deeply skeptical about the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
Friday 4 September 2026
South Korea taps chip windfall for next tech push
South Korea is turning a semiconductor-driven tax windfall into a broader technology investment push, directing record fiscal firepower toward chips, Nvidia's Vera Rubin computing platform, AI data centers, robotics and the power and water infrastructure needed to support them.
Friday 4 September 2026
Samsung turns to chips, OLED for next phase of Vietnam expansion
Samsung is expanding its Vietnam footprint beyond smartphones, with semiconductor testing, high-end chip substrates, OLED displays and R&D emerging as the next pillars of its presence in one of its largest global manufacturing bases.
Friday 4 September 2026
MSScorps August revenue hits new high on silicon photonics gains
MSScorps saw August 2026 revenue post a new single-month high, as global artificial intelligence (AI) computing power continues to expand, driving demand for advanced process technologies, high-performance computing (HPC), advanced packaging, and high-speed optical interconnects, further raising the importance of semiconductor analysis services.
Friday 4 September 2026
Trusval Technology eyes NT$23 billion order backlog, US 4Q26 ramp
Trusval Technology is riding AI- and high-performance computing-driven semiconductor expansion overseas, but Taiwan's fab engineering firms face tougher labor shortages, regulations, materials constraints and rising costs abroad. Co-CEO Chu-chiao Kung said the company is turning years of high-spec project execution for leading advanced-process customers into global competitiveness.
Friday 4 September 2026
SEMICON Taiwan 2026: QuantumDiamonds cracks the hybrid bonding blind spot with new inline metrology
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The global semiconductor industry is hitting a physical wall. As artificial intelligence demands push architectures toward three-dimensional packaging, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks, and complex hybrid bonding, traditional inspection tools are going blind.
Friday 4 September 2026
Chunghwa Precision Test sees ASIC revenue overtaking GPU by 2027
Chunghwa Precision Test Technology said demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) is driving a surge in advanced testing interface business, while ASIC revenue is set to grow rapidly and catch up with GPU sales. CEO Shui-Ke Huang said GPU products remain the mainstream in the HPC chip market and the company's main revenue source, with US customers also serving as its largest clients.
Friday 4 September 2026
K&S targets CPO, CoPoS growth with expanded TCB advanced packaging roadmap
Singapore-based semiconductor packaging equipment maker Kulicke and Soffa (K&S) said AI demand is spreading into adjacent applications, lifting 2026 orders for wire bonding equipment and driving shipments to a record high, while the company continues to expand its advanced packaging business.
Friday 4 September 2026
CPO high-density optical interconnects drive E&R's submicron 2D FAU breakthrough
To meet next-generation high-speed optical interconnect demand, fiber array units (FAU) are moving from traditional one-dimensional layouts to high-density two-dimensional (2D) architectures, raising the bar for hole positioning accuracy, micro-hole size, packing density, and process stability. At SEMICON Taiwan 2026, semiconductor equipment maker E&R Engineering unveiled a new ultra-high-precision laser micromachining platform with integrated high-precision motion control, laser drilling, and micromachining technologies.
Friday 4 September 2026
Kyocera completes Nagasaki plant for semiconductor ceramics and packages
Kyocera held a ceremony on September 1 to mark the completion of its Nagasaki Isahaya Plant in Kuremo-machi, Isahaya, Nagasaki. The company says the new manufacturing site will anchor its push into semiconductor-related products. Total investment will reach approximately JPY68 billion (US$424.70 million) by the end of March 2029, according to the company's announcement.
Friday 4 September 2026
Taiwan automation specialist Kenmec targets semiconductor packaging plants with low-clearance OHT, AI digital twins
Rising semiconductor packaging and testing demand is exposing space and logistics constraints at existing plants. Kenmec Mechanical Engineering is targeting the upgrade market with a smart-factory solution combining automated material handling systems (AMHS), overhead hoist transport (OHT), and AI-powered digital twins, allowing packaging and testing facilities to automate without extensive reconstruction.
Friday 4 September 2026
Processor, memory boom could push chip supply chain out of sync, says Yole
Gary Huang, vice president and head of Asia-Pacific research and business development at Yole Group, said the imbalance is already showing signs of what he described as supply-chain "decoupling."
Friday 4 September 2026
Silicon Valley overflow fuels semiconductor boom in California's Capital Region
A surge of multibillion-dollar industrial expansions is quietly transforming California's capital region into a premier domestic semiconductor and advanced technology powerhouse, positioning it as a highly competitive gateway for global tech firms looking to scale beyond an overflowing Silicon Valley.
Friday 4 September 2026
Sumitomo Chemical starts mass production of 4-inch InP wafers for AI data centers
Sumitomo Chemical has started mass production and sales of indium phosphide (InP) epitaxial wafers, a core material for optical semiconductors used in next-generation data centers and high-speed networks. The move could help ease power and data bottlenecks facing AI infrastructure worldwide, as demand rises for faster, more efficient computing and communications.
Friday 4 September 2026
Silicon photonics testing shift could reshape how CPO suppliers win business
As silicon photonics (SiPh) and co-packaged optics (CPO) move toward mass production, suppliers say testing is shifting earlier in the process to catch defects at the wafer stage, protect yields, and preserve data through final assembly. That change is also pushing equipment makers toward team-based bids, with a single integrator likely to coordinate the system.
Friday 4 September 2026
Chip leaders call for end to 'silo mentality' as AI scale-up demands cross-industry collab
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is forcing a radical shift from individual chip design to holistic system-level engineering, requiring competitors and supply chain partners to dismantle organizational silos or face crippling inefficiencies, top industry executives said at SEMICON Taiwan 2026.
Friday 4 September 2026
LB Semicon starts Qualcomm shipments as DDI dependence fades
South Korean OSAT player LB Semicon has begun shipments to Qualcomm Inc., marking a key step in its effort to move beyond a business structure long centered on display driver ICs (DDI) and expand into system and power semiconductors.
Friday 4 September 2026
Taiwan to expand industrial land for AI hardware boom
Taiwan's government says it will expand industrial land development to meet surging demand for AI infrastructure hardware, as global suppliers race to add capacity through 2027. Premier Jung-tai Cho said the government is already seeing strong demand from companies looking to build more plants in Taiwan, including semiconductor, packaging and testing, memory, substrate, and equipment makers, as well as foreign investors such as Nvidia and Micron Technology.
Friday 4 September 2026
Electroninks, Merck, Qualipoly build advanced packaging ecosystem
Electroninks, a global provider of metal-composite conductive inks and advanced semiconductor packaging materials, has formed a strategic partnership with Merck and Taiwan-based Qualipoly Chemical to offer advanced packaging customers a more complete, faster, and more efficient integrated service.
Thursday 3 September 2026
CHPT spans wafer to system-level testing
Chunghwa Precision Test Tech showcased a range of test interface solutions for AI chips and high-performance computing (HPC) at SEMICON Taiwan 2026, including AI probe cards, memory probe cards, high-pin-count probe cards, and a high-power burn-in board for AI ASICs.
Thursday 3 September 2026
China chip tool makers expand beyond import substitution at CSEAC 2026

China's semiconductor equipment industry is moving beyond replacing imported tools at mature nodes, with CSEAC 2026 highlighting deeper advances in etching, thin-film deposition, cleaning, metrology, advanced packaging and core components.

Thursday 3 September 2026
KEPCO seeks US$18 billion from Samsung, SK Hynix to fund Korea's power grid
Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has proposed that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix prepay as much as KRW25 trillion (approx. US$18 billion) in electricity bills as South Korea looks for new ways to finance the power infrastructure required for its rapidly expanding semiconductor clusters.