Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TrendForce released its foundry rankings for the first quarter of 2019. TSMC is still the clear leader, followed in order by Samsung, GlobalFoundries and UMC, according to the firm. It was a tough quarter for all foundries. Samsung has rolled out its new High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2E) product. The new solution, called Flashbolt, is the industry’s first HBM2E to deliver a 3.2Gbps... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


OEMs and chipmakers Apple has reduced its revenue outlook to $84 billion for the quarter, down from $89 billion to $93 billion in its original forecast. The consensus on Wall Street was $91 billion. “The guide down was mostly attributed to weaker-than-expected iPhone demand in emerging markets, predominantly China,” said John Vinh, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets, in a research not... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


R&D Imec and CEA-Leti have signed a memorandum of understanding under which the two R&D organizations will form a strategic partnership in the domains of artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Europe hopes to accelerate its effort in both AI and quantum computing. Market research TrendForce announced the ranking of top 10 fabless IC design houses worldwide based on their revenues f... » read more

What’s The Outlook for Memory?


What a difference a year makes in the memory business. At this time last year, the industry was in the midst of a boom cycle for both NAND and DRAM. More specifically, there was huge demand for 3D NAND. Then, starting in the first quarter of 2018, the NAND market began to decline and it continues to fall. And now, the DRAM market is also falling off the cliff. So, it’s time to take a q... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Tariffs The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a step in its ongoing efforts to remove regulatory barriers that inhibit the deployment of infrastructure necessary for 5G and other advanced wireless services in the U.S. "5G networks in America are key for powering the next generation of innovation, such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and smart cities. (The FCC�... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Trade wars The Trump administration unveiled a plan to impose additional tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods on July 10. The announced product list included more than ten categories of LED package and lighting products, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The export value of the major lighting products in the list reached $5 billion in 2017. “So far, the impact of the U... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers Last year, Micron filed suit against UMC, alleging that UMC stole memory technology from the company and transferred it to Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., a DRAM maker in China. In response, UMC filed patent infringement lawsuits against Micron in the mainland China courts in January of 2018 This week, Micron appears to have suffered a legal setback in its suit against Taiwan�... » read more

The Darker Side Of Consolidation


Another wave of consolidation is underway in the semiconductor industry, setting the stage for some high-stakes competitive battles over market turf and sowing confusion across the supply chain about continued support throughout a product's projected lifetime. The consolidation comes as chipmakers already are grappling with rising complexity, the loss of a roadmap for future designs as Moore... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tools Applied Materials has launched a suite of products that will enable cobalt metallization schemes for contacts and interconnects in chips at advanced nodes. The products from Applied enable a complete cobalt fill process. The tools include CMP, CVD, PVD and RTP systems. At advanced nodes, cobalt promises to reduce unwanted resistance in the critical parts of a chip. Cobalt is bein... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


R&D Late last month, the U.S. Congress finalized the federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. This includes R&D spending as well. “There was grave concern over the future of federal spending with the release of the president’s FY 2018 budget, which would have cut the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget by 11% and National Institutes of Standards & Technology (NIST) spend... » read more

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