Chip Industry Week In Review


Infineon rolled out the world's first 300mm gallium nitride (GaN) wafer, opening the door for high-volume manufacturing of GaN-based power semiconductors. A 300mm wafer contains 2.3 times as many chips per wafer as a 200mm wafer. Fig.1: Infineon's 300mm GaN wafer. Source: Infineon The Semiconductor Industry Association released its 2024 State of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry report th... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


SK hynix and TSMC plan to collaborate on HBM4 development and next-generation packaging technology, with plans to mass produce HBM4 chips in 2026. The agreement is an early indicator for just how competitive, and potentially lucrative, the HBM market is becoming. SK hynix said the collaboration will enable breakthroughs in memory performance with increased density of the memory controller at t... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan. The Japanese government approved $3.9 billion in funding for chipmaker Rapidus to expand its foundry business, of which 10% will be invested in advanced packaging. This is in addition to the previously announced $2.18 billion in funding. In a meeting next week, the U.S. and Japan are expected to cooperate on increasing semiconductor development a... » read more

Startup Funding: January 2024


Big rounds marked January, with three companies raising over $100 million. Quantum computing topped the list, with the company that resulted from the merger of Cambridge Quantum Computing and Honeywell's quantum division raking in the third-largest round for a quantum computing company ever. Another chart-topper was an advanced packaging company that began mass production in its first factor... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Karen Heyman, and Liz Allan Renesas will acquire Transphorm, which designs and manufactures gallium nitride power devices, for about $339 million. GaN, which is a wide-bandgap technology, is used for high-voltage applications in a slew of markets, including EVs and EV fast chargers, as well as data centers and industrial applications. Cadence acquired Invecas, a provider o... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Hyundai, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and others invested a combined $100 million in Canada-based Tenstorrent to accelerate the design and development of AI chiplets and machine-learning software and allow the integration of AI into future Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles, plus other future mobilities such as robotics and advanced air mobility (AAM). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administr... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Cadence will acquire Rambus' SerDes and memory interface PHY IP business. Rambus will retain its digital IP business, including memory and interface controllers and security IP. “With this transaction, we will increase our focus on market-leading digital IP and chips and expand our roadmap of novel memory solutions to support the continued evolution of the data center and AI,” said Sean Fan... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Synopsys acquired Silicon Frontline Technology, a provider of an electrical layout verification solution for mixed-signal and analog designs, large-scale power semiconductor devices, and electrostatic discharge protection networks. "This acquisition enables Synopsys to extend the capabilities of our design analysis portfolio and help build out a system-level electrical analysis platform. We als... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Quantum Computing Researchers in China are putting a damper on Google’s claims of achieving quantum supremacy after they were able to use normal processors to complete a difficult calculation in a few hours. Sycamore, Google’s quantum computer, completed the same calculation in a few minutes back in 2019, but the company said it would take a supercomputer more than 10,000 years to do the... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Cadence will acquire Future Facilities, a provider of electronics cooling analysis and energy performance optimization solutions for data center design and operations using physics-based 3D digital twins. Future Facilities’ product portfolio includes an electronics thermal solution, as well as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) electronics cooling simulation technology that op... » read more

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