Taiwan-based General Interface Solution (GIS) and Egis Technology are set to maintain strong sales momentum in the first half of 2019 for ramping up their respective fingerprint sensors to Samsung Electronics, according to industry sources.

Intel is reportedly to begin working on engineering projects that will enable mass-production of 5G modem chips with its collaborative partners in the second quarter of 2019, according to sources from Taiwan's IC backend service providers.

Qualcomm, Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) and Asustek Computer have announced jointly the commercial launch of new Asustek smartphones that utilize Qualcomm's cellular system-in-package (SiP) technology in Brazil.

Taiwan-based IC and materials distributors are unlikely to see demand pick up until after the second quarter of 2019, according to industry sources.

The declining market for semiconductors used in mobile handsets and enterprise servers led to a realignment in the company market-share ranking for semiconductor manufacturers. While Samsung led semiconductor sales for the past five quarters, Intel outpaced Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2018, according...

Microcontroller unit specialist Nuvoton is focusing on high-performance 32-bit MCUs, which will account for two thirds of its new products this year, according to the company.

MediaTek saw its February revenues fall to a 12-month low of NT$14.16 billion (US$458.2 million).

An industry alliance has been formed in Taiwan to promote the RISC-V chip architecture for AI and IoT applications.

Smart cars will integrate four core elements, collectively dubbed CASE (connected, autonomous, shared and services, and electric), which has become a common goal being sought after by major automakers including Daimler, initiator of the CASE concept. The elements are sending the global auto industry...

Silicon Motion Technology has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its mobile communications product line, branded as FCI, to Dialog Semiconductor.

Qualcomm and MediaTek are both planning to hire more R&D personnel in Taiwan.

Despite 5G business opportunities set to bud in 2019 and start fermenting in 2020, most Taiwan IC designers may be marginalized in the 5G era as they can hardly afford heavy investment in technology development or find sufficient talent, according to industry sources.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached US$35.5 billion in January 2019, down 7.2% sequentially and 5.7% on year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Intel has quietly ceased its 5G partnership with China's state-owned Unisoc, previously know as Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA, amid ongoing trade tensions between the US and China.

Flat panel maker Innolux has signed a collaboration agreement with fingerprint solution provider SuperC-Touch and fingerprint scanner supplier Startek Engineering to develop glass substrate-based fingerprint sensors to tap the fast growing mobile payment market.

Intel has nnounced that it contributed the Intel Thunderbolt protocol specification to the USB Promoter Group, enabling other chip makers to build Thunderbolt compatible silicon, royalty-free. The USB Promoter Group has also announced the pending release of the USB4 specification, based on the Thunderbolt...

Touch and fingerprint sensor supplier Elan Microelectronics is expected to suffer a 10% sequential decline in revenues in the first quarter due to fewer working days during the Lunar New Year period, but its next-generation chips are expected to significantly improve its profitability for 2019.

Global chipmakers have been racing to develop chip solutions associated with Industry 4.0 applications to tap huge business opportunities arising from smart manufacturing in conjunction with the rapid development of 5G and AI applications.

Taiwan-based FocalTech Systems saw its gross margin fall into negative territory to minus 8.35% in the fourth quarter of 2018, when the supplier of touchcreen and LCD driver ICs suffered net losses of NT$2.65 billion (US$86.2 million) or NT$9.63 a share.

Taiwan's IC industry output value will continue growing but at a slow pace in 2019, according to a government-sponsored association.

Leading FPGA chip maker Xilinx is aggressively moving to tap into the market for chip solutions for 5G base stations, and the move is expected to increase orders by 15% for Taiwan-based backend service providers including King Yuan Electronics and distribution agents such as Answer Technology in 2019,...

Taiwan-based Faraday Technology, a fabless ASIC service and silicon IP provider, expects to post a double-digit sequential decrease in first-quarter revenues. Revenues will start picking up in the second quarter, however.

Taiwan IC designer Agis Technology is expected to see its shipments of capacitive fingerprint identification chips surge starting March, as the company is to fulfill orders from Samsung Electronics for such chips to support its Galaxy S10e smartphone models and may also land similar orders for Galaxy...

In addition to continuing to make efforts to maintain its leadership in the global smartphone market, Huawei is also to excert all-out efforts to develop its chipset business in the 2019, according to industry sources.

The planned launch of foldable smartphones by vendors other than Samsung Electronics such as Huawei and other Chinese brands, will benefit Taiwan's supply chain makers related to LCD driver IC-design houses, backend service providers and substrate suppliers, according to industry sources.