U.S., China investments, Mexico’s plans, TEL’s dual-side wafer clean; IBM and Rapidus to further develop 2nm.
The CHIPS Act sparked $200 billion in private investments for U.S. semiconductor production, including 40 new semiconductor ecosystem projects, according to SIA.
China is working toward self-sufficiency, with plans to invest more than 1 trillion yuan ($143 billion) to support domestic semiconductor production, according to Reuters. Arm said that Britain and the U.S. would not approve licenses to export some designs to Alibaba, the Financial Times reported.
The technological supply chain is being sustained in Russia, despite international sanctions, according to one report.
Mexico has its sights on design, packaging and testing for the semiconductor industry. However, concerns over energy supply, overdependence on fossil fuels, and a lack of financial incentives may derail their ambitions.
IBM and Rapidus announced a joint development partnership to advance logic scaling technology. They will further develop IBM’s 2nm node technology for implementation by Rapidus at its fab in Japan.
India plans to transform a vast tract in Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s home state into the likely site of a roughly $20 billion semiconductor fabrication plant to be built by Foxconn. The Foxconn-Vedanta deal would represent the largest corporate investment in India and its first privately owned fab, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran revealed that the conglomerate plans to launch new businesses in emerging fields such as electric vehicles.
ASML CEO Peter Wennink questioned the latest U.S. push to get the Netherlands to adopt new rules restricting exports to China.
Siemens Digital Industries Software announced that its Sokol Flex OS software now supports RISC-V embedded development in what it calls the industry’s first commercially supported, extensible, and customizable Linux platforms for the RISC-V architecture.
TEL announced the launch of the CELLESTA MS2, a system for wafer cleaning and surface preparation on both the front and back sides of a wafer. The new equipment eliminates the use of pure water and gases typically required for the back side, reducing waste. “CELLESTA MS2 enables efficient processing of both wafer sides to significantly improve the productivity per unit area, which contributes to footprint reduction,” said Yasuhiro Washio, vice president and general manager of the CTSPS business unit at TEL. “The system also cuts utility usage to reduce the burden on the environment.”
DISCO developed DFG8541, a fully automatic grinder that can process Si and SiC wafers up to a maximum size of 200mm. The equipment was exhibited at SEMICON Japan 2022.
Edwards is opening new manufacturing facilities in Chandler, Arizona and Haverhill, Massachusetts to support the North American semiconductor market, which will begin operations this quarter.
Microchip Technology decided not to build a $5 billion factory in Gresham, Oregon, eliminating the state’s best prospects for adding new semiconductor manufacturing jobs.
Applied Materials announced the commercial availability of “cold field emission” (CFE) technology, an e-beam inspection system that had previously been used only in academic settings. The commercial version should enable better detection of nanometer-scale, buried defects.
Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by OEMs is forecast to reach a new high of $108.5 billion in 2022, rising 5.9% from the previous industry record of $102.5 billion in 2021, SEMI announced in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – OEM Perspective. This caps three consecutive years of record revenue.
In the same report, SEMI said it expects the global semiconductor equipment market to correct to $91.2 billion in 2023, then rebound in 2024. The worldwide semiconductor industry is projected to invest more than $500 billion in 84 volume chipmaking facilities, starting construction from 2021 to 2023, with segments including automotive and high-performance computing fueling the spending increases. The projected growth in factories includes 33 new fabs breaking ground in 2022, with 28 more in 2023.
TECHCET announced that the Total Semiconductor Materials market in 2022 is expected to top US$66 billion after strong demand in the first three quarters. The growth represents 8% revenue growth versus 2021, with material segments such as CMP pads, specialty gases, precursor materials, and SOI wafers growing by double-digits year-over-year.
TrendForce reported that the revenue generation momentum of the global IC design industry slowed in 3Q22. Causes included the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, recent COVID-19 lockdowns in China, ongoing inflation, and inventory corrections. The total revenue of the global top 10 IC design houses came to $37.38 billion for 3Q22, showing a QoQ decline of 5.3%. Revenue leaders were Qualcomm, Broadcom, NVIDIA, and AMD.
Latin American and Caribbean smartphone shipments fell 13% YoY and 17.3% QoQ in Q3 2022, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. All the top brands’ volumes declined QoQ, except for OPPO.
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