Chip Industry Week in Review


The U.S. government announced new import tariff actions and deals this week, including: The EU: 15% tariff on most goods including semiconductors. According to the EU's president, the action excludes semiconductor equipment. Copper: 50% tariff on all imports of semi-finished copper products and intensive copper derivative products, effective Aug. 1, but raw input material is excluded. ... » read more

The Rise Of Panel-Level Packaging


An insatiable demand for logic to memory integration for AI and high-performance computing is driving progress toward very large-format packages, which are expected to approach 10 times the maximum reticle size in the next few years. These assemblies are best developed using fan-out panel-level packaging, replacing today’s wafer carrier with a panel. Fan-out packaging enables substantially... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


AI featured big at this week's Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco. Dozens of companies featured AI-related tools (see product section below), as well as significant improvements to existing tools and some entirely new approaches for designing chips. Among the highlights: Siemens unveiled an AI-enhanced toolset for the EDA design flow that enables customers to integrate the... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


Texas Instruments will invest more than $60 billion to build and expand seven semiconductor fabs in Texas and Utah, supporting more than 60,000 U.S. jobs. Chinese automakers — including SAIC Motor, Changan, Great Wall Motor, BYD, Li Auto and Geely — are aiming to launch new models with 100% homemade chips, some as early as 2026, reports Nikkei Asia. Marvell introduced 2nm custom SRAM ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


McKinsey issued a new report on the state of the chemical supply chain for semiconductors in the U.S., citing potential shortages of high-purity materials such as tungsten, aluminum and copper, lack of access to CMP slurries and photoresists for EUV, and rising competition for high-k precursors that can fetch higher prices outside of the U.S. CSIS weighed in on the U.S. goverment's recent ... » read more

Software-Defined Radar Is First Leap On SDV Path


Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) have had car company marketers in a veritable tizzy for several years, and while they generally agree on the direction, they differ on the speed and route to adoption. For most OEMs, a wholesale change in vehicle architecture, from hood ornament to trunk-latch, is easier said than done. Legacy systems, both hardware and software, are the millstone around OEMs... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Worldwide silicon wafer shipments declined nearly 2.7% to 12,266 million square inches in 2024, with wafer revenue contracting 6.5% to $11.5 billion, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group. CSIS released a new report, “Critical Minerals and the Future of the U.S. Economy,” with detailed analysis and policy recommendations for building a secure mineral supply chain for semicond... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


The chip industry is well on its way to hit $1 trillion in revenue by the end of its decade. Several analyst firms released 2024 annual results and 2025 predictions: Worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $626 billion in 2024, an 18% increase versus 2023, according to preliminary Gartner report. Memory revenue grew about 70%  2024 versus 2023. The firm forecasts that HBM will make up 19%... » read more

FOPLP Gains Traction in Advanced Semiconductor Packaging


Fan-Out Panel-Level Packaging (FOPLP) for advanced nodes, once hindered by manufacturability and yield challenges, is emerging as a promising solution to meet the industry’s demands for higher integration densities and cost efficiency. Traditionally, FOPLP has been a go-to solution for cost-sensitive applications in consumer electronics, IoT devices, and mid-tier automotive systems. Its ab... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Analog Devices acquired Flex Logix's technology assets, along with its technical team. Semiconductor global sales increased 23% in Q3 2024 $166B, up almost 11% versus the same period in 2023, according to SIA. Notable regional year-to-year sales in September: Americas up 46%, China up 23%, Europe down 8%. Fig.1: Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues, year-to-year % change. Source: Semiconduc... » read more

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