Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy As reported, the United States is in dire need of more fab capacity as well as packaging plants. The U.S. took a big step in an effort to solve the problem. The U.S. House of Representatives this week introduced the America Competes Act of 2022. The bill includes funding for the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act, which is earmarked... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


OEMs For some time, the automotive industry has suffered due to chip shortages in the market. And the chip shortages are spreading into other markets. In the latest news, GM plans to idle key truck plants amid chip shortages, according to a report from Bloomberg. “GM said eight of its 14 North American assembly plants will experience shutdowns this month because of chip shortages, includi... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy--semiconductors Eighteen members of the European Union have launched an initiative to boost the EU’s efforts in processors and semiconductor technologies. The member nations will also work together to bolster leading-edge manufacturing capacity. The EU plans to invest up to $145 billion in the effort. “Europe has all it takes to diversify and reduce critical dependenci... » read more

Semicon West Day Three


It’s day three at Semicon West. (In case you missed it, here’s the day one/two recap of Semicon.) Day three was fairly lively, featuring several keynotes, panels and technical presentations. It’s difficult to write about everything. So I decided to only focus on a few items. Keynote--What happen to automotive? For years, automotive has been a bright spot in the semiconductor i... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Deals ArterisIP inked a deal with Mobileye, which has bought multiple licenses for ArterisIP's interconnect and resilience technology for functional safety and AI hardware acceleration. Mobileye, which was purchased by Intel last year for $15.3 billion, will use the technology for ISO 26262/ASIL B and D SoCs. Siemens agreed to operate its MindSphere digital operating system on Alibaba Cloud... » read more

The Week in Review: IoT


Finance Marvell Technology Group priced $500 million in senior notes due in 2023 and $500 million in senior notes due in 2028. The chip company will use net proceeds from the debt offering, cash on hand, and borrowings under a new term loan facility to fund the cash consideration and other amounts payable for Marvell’s proposed $6 billion acquisition of Cavium. The companies have expected to... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tools and test Applied Materials reported record revenue and operating profit in its first quarter ended Jan. 28. Compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2017, Applied grew net sales by 28% to $4.20 billion. In the second quarter of fiscal 2018, Applied expects net sales to be in the range of $4.35 billion to $4.55 billion. “AMAT posted F1Q results above guidance as NAND demand, in p... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Gartner predicts that by 2016 smartwatches will comprise about 40% of consumer wristworn devices. Gartner said that nine out of the top 10 smartphone vendors have entered the wearables market to date or are about to ship a first product, while a year ago only two vendors were in that space. The eBeam Initiative announced the completion of its third annual survey. In one of the highlights of ... » read more