With demand for diverse chips solutions continuing to grow robustly, Taiwan's foundry houses, IC designers and even EMS providers are all strengthening tie-up with backend houses seeking to benefit more from the rare market boom ever seen in 20 years, according to industry sources.
Apart from using its own 3D fabric packaging platform to serve heavyweight clients, TSMC has released a significant portion of substrate or lead frame-based packaging orders for chips manufactured on mature process nodes to top OSAT firm ASE Technology, the sources said.
MediaTek has also secured sufficient testing capacity support from King Yuan Electronics and Sigurd Microelectronics in addition to TSMC's foundry capacity promise, helping deepen its presence in the 5G handset AP segment in 2021, the sources continued.
Leading EMS provider Foxconn has teamed up with top passive component vendor Yageo to develop solutions and services for digital healthcare, EVs and other emerging device applications. Foxconn's backend subsidiary ShunSin Technology and Yageo's backend arm Tong Hsing Electronics Industries will also play a supplementary role in the cooperation, the sources noted.
Driver IC packager Chipbond Technology has also struck a long-term strategic alliance with Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE), aiming to tap deeper into the segments of 5G, AI and other logic ICs.
Powertech Technology (PTI) expects to put increased focus on packaging higher-end logic ICs, including foraying into the CMOS image sensor packaging segment with TSV (through silicon via) technology, and its subsidiary Greatek Electronics will remain focused on mature wire bonding processes including QFN and QFP, the sources said.
