Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs NXP has announced the grand opening of its 150mm (6-inch) RF gallium nitride (GaN) fab in Chandler, Ariz. This is said to be the most advanced fab dedicated to 5G RF power amplifiers in the United States. NXP’s new Chandler-based GaN fab is qualified now, with initial products ramping in the market and expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2020. GaN, a III-V techn... » read more

DRAM, 3D NAND Face New Challenges


It’s been a topsy-turvy period for the memory market, and it's not over. So far in 2020, demand has been slightly better than expected for the two main memory types — 3D NAND and DRAM. But now there is some uncertainty in the market amid a slowdown, inventory issues and an ongoing trade war. In addition, the 3D NAND market is moving toward a new technology generation, but some are enc... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Packaging Chunghwa Telecom, ASE and Qualcomm Technologies have announced plans to jointly build Taiwan's first 5G mmWave enterprise private network smart factory. As part of the plan, ASE is deploying a series of smart factory technologies within its existing Kaohsiung, Taiwan-based campus. This includes the deployment of 5G mmWave network cells in the Kaohsiung campus. Qualcomm will be ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers Jim Keller, senior vice president in the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) and general manager of the Silicon Engineering Group (SEG) at Intel, has resigned amid a major reorganization at the company. Here's one report about the situation. Cree as well as China’s Yutong Group and StarPower are working together to accelerate the commercial adoption of sili... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TSMC has announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the U.S. The fab, to be built in Arizona, will utilize TSMC’s 5nm technology and will produce 20,000 wafers per month. TSMC’s total spending on this project will be approximately $12 billion from 2021 to 2029. Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 202... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced new export control actions to prevent China, Russia, and Venezuela from obtaining U.S. technology for military purposes. This expands the “Military End Use/User Controls (MEU)” license requirement controls on China, Russia, and Venezuela, covering military end-users, as well as semiconductor equipment, sensors and other technologies. ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TrendForce has released its projected foundry rankings in terms of sales for the first quarter. TSMC is still in first place, followed by Samsung, GlobalFoundries and UMC. Samsung has been ramping up chips based on its 7nm logic process using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Now, Samsung is ramping up its DRAM devices using EUV and plans to expand its capacity in the arena.... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


SPIE At the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, Lam Research has introduced a new dry resist technology for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Dry resist technology is a new approach to deposit and develop EUV resists. It is a dry deposition technique with alternate compositions and mechanisms. By combining Lam’s deposition and etch process expertise with partnerships with ASML a... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers A fire broke out this week at a joint NAND flash fab between Western Digital (WD) and Kioxia. Kioxia is the former Toshiba NAND flash unit that was recently spun out by the Japanese company. “On Monday, January 6, (morning, January 7 local time) a small fire occurred at one of our joint venture facilities in Yokkaichi, Japan. Local firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, and w... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Market research The worldwide semiconductor market is forecast to reach $409 billion in 2019, down 12.8% over 2018, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization. Memory fell by 33.0% in 2019, while analog dropped 7.9% and logic declined by 4.3%, according to the WSTS. In 2020, the IC market is expected to recover and grow by 5.9%, according to the WSTS. Optoelec... » read more

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