Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


South Korea slashed chip production in February by 17.7% compared to the previous month — 41.8% year-over-year, and the sharpest drop since 2008 — according to figures from South Korea’s National Statistics Office. Inventories were up 33.5%, while exports dropped by 41.6%. China launched a security probe into U.S. memory chipmaker Micron in apparent retaliation for U.S. restrictions on... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


The U.S. Commerce Department outlined proposed rules for the Chips for America Incentives Program, including additional details on national security measures applicable to the CHIPS Incentives Program included in the CHIPS and Science Act. The rules limit funding recipients from investing in the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in foreign countries of concern, notably the People’s Rep... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


TEL announced plans to build a ¥2.2 billion ($168.2 million) production and logistics center at its Tohoku Office to increase capacity. Construction of the 57,000m² facility, which will be used for manufacturing thermal processing and single-wafer deposition systems, is slated to start in spring 2024, and expected to be completed in fall 2025. Toshiba's board voted in favor of a 2 trillio... » read more

China Chip Industry Startup Funding Annual Report & Analysis: 2022


China is racing to stay competitive in semiconductors, as trade sanctions increasingly limit its access to EDA tools and manufacturing equipment required for the most advanced manufacturing processes. As a result, state-backed investors and regional development funds are pouring money into domestic semiconductor companies. This report will provide a glimpse into where the money is going, and wh... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Samsung announced plans to invest $230 billion (300 trillion won) over the next two decades to construct the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing complex in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province, reports AP. The complex will consist of five new semiconductor plants producing memory and logic chips. Chips will be the enabling engines, requiring massive investments in new technology, m... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Global semiconductor sales decreased 5.2% month-to-month in January, according to a new report by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). For the year, worldwide chip sales are down 18.5%, with the largest drop in sales by China at 31.6%, followed by the Asia Pacific region at 19.5%, and the Americas at 12.4%. Despite the contraction, companies are increasing investments in manufacturi... » read more

Big Changes Ahead For Chip Technology And Industry Dynamics


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of customization and advanced packaging, and concerns about reliability and geopolitical rivalries with Martin van den Brink, president and CTO of ASML; Luc Van den Hove, CEO of imec; David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research; and Ankur Gupta, vice president and general manager of the test group and lifecycle s... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Imec released its semiconductor roadmap, which calls for doubling compute power every six months to handle the data explosion and new data-intensive problems. Imec named five walls (scaling, memory, power, sustainability, cost) that need to be dismantled. The roadmap (below) stretches from 7nm to 0.2nm (2 angstroms) by 2036, and includes four generations of gate-all-around FETs followed by thre... » read more

EDA, IP Growth Surges Again


EDA tools and IP revenue increased 8.9% in Q3 of 2022 to $3.767 billion, up from $3.458 billion in 2021, according to a just-released report from the ESD Alliance at SEMI. All regions except Japan reported growth, but the numbers were a bit more uneven in Q3 than in recent quarters. For example, total silicon IP dropped 1%, while services revenue grew 20.8%. At the same time, EDA revenue jum... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Dutch tech industry group FME called for the European Commission to draft a position on whether and how to restrict computer chip technology exports to China, saying "more unified and powerful action" was needed from Europe, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he saw gradual progress in talks with the U.S. over potential new restrictions on exporting chip-makin... » read more

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