Foundries Expand Their Scope


By Ed Sperling & Mark LaPedus Major foundries are stepping up their offerings across a wide swath of technology nodes, specialty processes and advanced packaging—a recognition that end markets are fragmenting and that the path forward includes a mix of new and established processes. As the smart phone market flattens, there is no single "next big thing" to drive volume at the most ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers In a blog, GlobalFoundries discussed the global push towards 5G or fifth-generation wireless networks. Samsung Electronics Australia has announced the creation of brainBAND, a wearable technology designed to facilitate research into concussions in sports. In the prototype, a headband houses sensors at the back of the head that measure the force of an impact. This information wou... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Intel announced that the company’s former CEO and chairman, Andrew Grove, passed away. He was 79. Present at Intel’s 1968 founding with Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Grove became Intel’s president in 1979 and CEO in 1987. He served as chairman from 1997 to 2005. “We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, in a st... » read more

Inside The OSAT Business


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the IC-packaging industry, foundries, China and other topics with Tien Wu, chief operating officer at Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), the world's largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) vendor. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What is your overall outlook for 2016? Wu: Last year, the semi... » read more

What’s Next For DRAM?


The DRAM business has always been challenging. Over the years, DRAM suppliers have experienced a number of boom and bust cycles in a competitive landscape. But now, the industry faces a cloudy, if not an uncertain, future. On one front, for example, [getkc id="93" kc_name="DRAM"] vendors face a downturn amid a capacity glut and falling product prices in 2016. But despite the business chal... » read more

Consolidation Hits OSAT Biz


The outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry is undergoing a new wave of acquisition activity that will dramatically reshape the packaging and test services markets. [getkc id="83" kc_name="OSATs"] have seen a considerable amount of consolidation over the years, but the industry needs a scorecard to keep track of the recent deals and the resulting fallout. One OSAT deal inv... » read more

Advanced Packaging Is Real. Now What?


For the past five years, it's been clear that 2.5D, fan-outs and other forms of system-in-package were on the horizon. Exactly when they would arrive no one knew. The most common prediction was that the timing would depend on when one of the big chipmakers decided to go down that route. The theory was that the remainder of the industry would follow, ecosystem issues would be sorted out—partic... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


2016 is starting off on the wrong foot. Samsung disclosed its preliminary results for the forth quarter. Samsung expects a difficult business environment in 2016, according to reports. Plus, Apple is seeing lower than expected demand. “We are lowering our March quarter iPhone units to 45M units (prior 54M) to reflect incremental softness and recent production cuts. Our sense is that iPhones a... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


South Korea’s SK Hynix led the initial charge in the development of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a 3D DRAM technology based on a memory stack and through-silicon vias (TSVs). SK Hynix has been shipping HBM parts in the market. Now, SK Hynix and Samsung are readying the next version of the technology, dubbed High Bandwidth Memory 2 or HMB2, according to a report from The Electronic Times of So... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Samsung plans to make a major entry into the drone market, according to reports. “Samsung is not alone in focusing on the drone market,” said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, in a research note. “At CES next month in Las Vegas, one can expect new products from drone market leader DJI, but dozens of new drone models from Parrot and many other companies. Even GoPro chip maker A... » read more

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