UMC's acquisition of Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor apparently has fulfilled two of its major strategic purposes: to expand its presence in the Japanese maket and the niche market. Through the wholly-owned Japanese subsidiary, now renamed United Semiconductor Japan (USJC), the Taiwan-based foundry house...

SoC solutions supporting 5G mmWave technology are unlikely to make a meaningful presence in the 5G chip market until the second half of 2020, according to industry sources.

Global makers of CMOS image sensors (CIS) are expected to embrace explosive demand for higher-specs CIS devices for application to autonomous vehicles in addition to handsets, which in turn will provide more opportunities for Taiwan-based backend firms, according to industry sources.

Cadence Design Systems has announced that Global Unichip Corporation (GUC) successfully deployed its digital implementation and signoff flow and delivered advanced-node (N16, N12 and N7) designs for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Taiwan-based IC design houses have seen significant increases in orders for related ICs for 5G phones recently, particularly from first-tier Chinese handset brands, with the ramp-ups likely to result in strong performances for most firms in the first quarter of 2020, according to sources from Taiwan's...

FocalTech Systems is expected to see its fourth-quarter revenues meet its estimate of slight sequential growth, but it remains to be seen whether the IC design house will remain profitable during the quarter, according to market observers.

Global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales will drop 10.5% to US$57.6 billion in 2019 from last year's historic peak of US$64.4 billion but stage a 2020 recovery and set a new high in 2021, according to SEMI.

The world's top pure-play foundry is set to wrap up 2019 with strong sales performances, thanks to impressive contributions from advanced manufacturring processes. TSMC is also on course to enter commerical production in first-half 2019...

Intel Labs has unveiled a cryogenic control chip, code-named "Horse Ridge," for speeding up development of full-stack quantum computing systems.

MediaTek reportedly plans to unveil its second 5G SoC in the latter half of December, one month after it released the first model of its 5G SoC family product, the Dimensity 1000, in November, according to industry sources familiar with the matter.

The global market for SoCs for true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds is poised for exponential growth in 2020, but competition will heat up, driving IC suppliers to improve their product portfolios to stay competitive, according to industry sources.

Taiwan's CMOS image sensor (CIS) packaging specialists including Kingpak Technology, Xintec,VisEra Technologies and Tong Hsing Electronic Industries are expected to benefit significantly from Sony's move to expand CIS capacity and launch smart CIS devices in 2020 to meet increasing demand for 5G, AI...

TSMC has obtained orders for CMOS image sensors from Sony, and will fabricate the chips using 40nm process technology at Fab 14A in Tainan, southern Taiwan, according to a recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

Acquiring Panasonic's loss-making semiconductor business will have a negative impact on Nuvoton Technology's profitability in the short term, and it may take time for the business to turn profitable, according to Arthur Chiao, chairman for Nuvoton and Winbond Electronics.

Although the memory market looks to be heading towards a recovery in 2020, suppliers are cautious about expanding supply. Winbond is building a new plant in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, with completion originally slated for year-end 2020 and commerical production for 2021. But now the company has now...

Qualcomm has launched new Arm-based processors for notebooks. Among the chips, the new Snapdragon 7c series designed for entry-level devices reportedly adopts ASE Technology's system-in-package (SiP) services to integrate multiple chips into one single package to help OEMs lower their R&D costs.

TSMC has been fast advancing its manufacturing processes. It is on track to move 5nm node to commercial production in the second half of 2020, and will soon break ground for a 3nm facility where volume production will start in 2022. Next...

MediaTek and Realtek Semiconductors are both gearing up to ramp up their output of Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) chips in 2020, according to sources at IC testing solutions providers.

TSMC uses its N7, the foundry's 7nm process without EUV, to fabricate Qualcomm's latest flagship processor, Snapdragon 865 series. Nevertheless, its Snapdragon 765 chips are being manufactured using Samsung's EUV-based 7nm process technology.

With revenues plunging by 14.7% in the third quarter, the global semiconductor market appears destined for a year of double-digit decline despite some signs of growth in the critical memory segment, according to IHS Markit.

Taiwan-based IC design houses have seen their China-based customers start slowing down their pace of orders due to year-end inventory checks at the clients, which may drag down revenues at those fabless chipmakers in November and December.

Qualcomm has introduced its new 5G SoC lineup - the Snapdragon 865 series for smartphone vendors' flagship models and the 765 series for midrange to high-end ones. But it is the midrange smartphone market segment that is expected to see...

More Taiwan-based IC design houses are moving to strengthen partnerships with foundries in China so as to land more orders from Chinese brand vendors seeking to cut reliance on US supplies of key semiconductor components, according to industry sources.

NAND flash is expected to see the fastest growth in 2020 among all IC segments, according to IC Insights.

The main battlefield in the 5G mobile chip market is expected to shift from flagship models to mostly midrange ones in the first half of 2020, as around 70% of over 200 million 5G smartphones to be shipped next year will be midrange to high-end ones, according to industry sources.