The Week In Review: Manufacturing


In case you missed it, Apple rolled out its latest iPhones and other products. The latest iPhone 6 is using chips based on finFETs. So, who won Apple’s application processor foundry business for the iPhone 7? “In our foundry checks, it appears Apple is likely splitting the 14/16nm business for the recent product launches between TSMC and Samsung. We suspect Samsung’s 14nm is used for the ... » read more

Avago Buys Broadcom; NXP Spins Off RF Power Unit


Merger and acquisition activity continues to heat up across the semiconductor industry. On one front, Avago Technologies continues on its acquisition spree. And on another front, NXP Semiconductors is moving to spin off its RF power business. And there are other deals in the works as well, including Intel's proposed move to buy Altera. What’s driving the wave of M&A activity? The sem... » read more

Industry Luminaries Outline China’s Semiconductor Growth Prospects


Industry and government luminaries participating at the SEMICON China 2015 Grand Opening Keynote session, the Semiconductor Market & China Opportunity Forum, and the Tech Investment Forum reviewed the expanding business opportunities and the key domestic policies aimed at growing the semiconductor industry ecosystem in China. This article primarily covers insights on the government’s new ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


For years, Altera’s sole foundry was TSMC. Then, not long ago, Altera selected Intel as its foundry partner for 14nm. TSMC still handles 20nm and above work for Altera. This quarter, Altera was supposed to select a foundry partner for 10nm. This week, Altera posted lackluster results in the quarter. Altera did not elaborate on its 10nm plans, nor did it discuss the Intel rumors. "Altera did n... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 21


Fan-out packaging consortium A*STAR’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and others have formed a high-density fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) consortium in Singapore. Others in the group include Amkor, Nanium, STATS ChipPAC, NXP, GlobalFoundries, Kulicke & Soffa, Applied Materials, Dipsol Chemicals, JSR, KLA-Tencor, Kingyoup Optronics, Orbotech and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK). T... » read more

Brite Semiconductor: Design Services


These days it's increasingly common for large commercial foundries to have a design services counterpart—TSMC has GlobalUnichip. GlobalFoundries has an entire ecosystem as well as a dedicated partner, Invecas. And China's SMIC has Brite Semiconductor. Brite was founded in 2008 by Open-Silicon as a way to tap the Chinese market, but the startup has taken some twists since then. It now is un... » read more

Full Steam Ahead For China Inc.


Were you in Shanghai this week? If not, you missed the biggest Semicon event in the world. Semicon China broke records this year. With more than 1,000 companies participating, and 570,000 square meters of exhibition space, Semicon China attracted more than 50,000 visitors, making it the largest Semicon event in the world. All the sessions we attended were standing room only. Key areas of fo... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


China’s ambitious plan in the 1990s to create numerous foundries did not come to fruition. But in 2014, the Chinese government described new semiconductor industry programs that will utilize investments by both the Chinese national government ($19.5 billion) and local government and private equity investors ($97.4 billion). “IC Insights believes that these outlays have the potential to sign... » read more

Is The Stacked Die Ecosystem Stagnating?


It is now widely agreed that not much has been happening in terms of adoption for 2.5D interposer and 3D ICs. “It seems like everyone is still at the starting line waiting for the race to begin," said Javier DeLaCruz, senior director of engineering of [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]. "Interposer assembly and IP availability for effectively using the [getkc id="82" comment="2.5D IC... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


China’s Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET) has made a bid to acquire STATS ChipPAC for $780 million, according to reports. This year’s top-20 chip ranking includes two pure-play foundries--TSMC and UMC--and six fabless companies, according to IC Insights. GlobalFoundries is forecast to be replaced in this year’s top 20 ranking by fabless IC supplier Nvidia, according to t... » read more

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