MEMS & Sensors Market Forecast: Impact Of Semiconductor Industry Slowdown


Of all technologies, MEMS and sensors stand out for their far-reaching promise to improve lives across segments such as Internet of Things (IoT), wearables, smart home, digital health, precision agriculture, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and environmental monitoring. Little wonder, then, that the growth of the MEMS and sensor design and manufacturing industry is among the hottest topics at ... » read more

China’s IC Industry Revenue On Track to Top $250 Billion In 2025


In the short span of a decade, China’s semiconductor sector has exploded to become one of the largest in the world and match the region’s prominence as the biggest consumer of chips. From 2015 to 2020 alone, revenue of China’s integrated circuit (IC) industry – consisting of IC design, IC manufacturing, and packaging and test – expanded at a rapid clip of 20% CAGR (RMB) to $128 billio... » read more

Global Fab Equipment Spending Poised To Log Three Straight Years Of Record Highs


Fueled by surging pandemic-inspired demand for electronics devices, the global semiconductor industry is on track to register a rare three consecutive years of record highs in fab equipment spending with a 16% increase in 2020 followed by forecast gains of 15.5% this year and 12% in 2022, SEMI highlighted in its quarterly World Fab Forecast report. Fabs worldwide will add about $10 billion ... » read more

Semiconductor CapEx To Grow 13.0% In 2021


Semiconductor capital expenditures grew 9.2% in 2020 to US$112.1 billion. This is $14.1 billion higher than our spring 2020 forecast, and $3.2 billion higher than our fall 2020 forecast. As shown in the graph below, the total 2020 CapEx was $9.4 billion larger than the $102.7 billion spent in 2019. Semico is forecasting 2021 CapEx to reach $127 billion, an increase of 13.0%. Source: Semico... » read more

China Passes Americas And Japan In IC Capacity


Back in 2012, China ranked fifth among seven regions worldwide in IC wafer capacity but surged past the Americas and Japan in 2018 and 2019 to claim the number three position (figure 1). That’s a big deal given that ICs account for the largest share of wafer capacity excluding discrete, opto, MEMS and sensors. China’s IC wafer capacity growth accelerated to tune of 14% in 2019 and 21% in... » read more

Chip Equipment Billings Soar In 2020


The global economy has started down a gradual path to recovery from COVID-19 in recent months as the world continues to combat the virus. Yet one sector – semiconductors – has shown impressive growth powered by a transformation hastened by the pandemic across industries ranging from education and work-from-home to healthcare. Semiconductor sales increased 12% in September to mark a secon... » read more

Semiconductors Up Globally, Warnings Ahead


Things are picking up. Purchasing managers indices indicated July manufacturing increases in most key countries with only South Korea and Japan having PMIs still in contraction territory (chart 1). The Global PMI recovered sharply (chart 2), reaching 50.3 in July. Service sector still fighting pandemic The manufacturing sector is recovering but the service sector is still struggling, hit h... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


M&A Intel will acquire fabless company eASIC. Founded in 1999, eASIC sells structured ASIC platforms that act as a midpoint between FPGAs and standard cell ASICs by combining FPGA-like logic and design flows with single via routing. Eventually, Intel sees potential in using its Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology to combine Intel FPGAs with structured ASICs in a system... » read more

Monday At DAC 2018


DAC #55 started with rumors flying. Will this be the last DAC as we know it? Is there a huge chasm forming between academia and the industry? Will DAC be able to make it in Las Vegas where there is no local interest? Of course, those who have been in the industry know that this kind of speculation happens every few years, and in the 80s, Las Vegas was a very popular location for DAC. There was ... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Security Addressing the Meltdown and Spectre speculative execution vulnerabilities has not gone smoothly. Intel's firmware update caused unexpected behavior and a higher than expected number of reboots for its Haswell and Broadwell chips, leading the company to recommend users stop patching until an updated version of the patch is available. Microsoft's attempts to fix the issue left some W... » read more

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