Samsung Electronics has started wafer production of its 7nm LPP with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology, according to the company.

Worldwide shipments of polished and epitaxial silicon wafers are forecast to total 12.445 billion square inches in 2018, exceeding the market high set in 2017, according to SEMI. Shipments will continue to reach record levels through 2021.

China's state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup has already begun to implement its new fab projects in Nanjing and Chengdu as part of its memory business expansion. The new manufacturing sites are designed for monthly output of 300,000 12-inch wafers each, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Despite the iPhone XR slated for launch in the latter half of October, Taiwan-based suppliers engaged in the Apple supply chain remain cautious about orders for the new iPhone series for the rest of 2018, according to industry sources.

Testing house King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) has signed a five-year syndicated loan for NT$14.2 billion (US$458.5 million) with 17 local banks in Taiwan, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).

Taiwan-based Spirox, which distributes and sells packaging and testing equipment, will no longer be Xcerra's exclusive sales agent in the Greater China region, which will significantly scale down the sale of its Xcerra products in 2019.

China-based pure-play foundry Hua Hong Semiconductor has announced that its second-generation 0.18-micron 5V/40V BCD process platform has been successfully mass-produced.

The average revenue generated from processed wafers among the four biggest pure-play foundries - TSMC, Globalfoundries, UMC and SMIC - is expected to be US$1,138 in 2018 when expressed in 200mm-equivalent wafers, which is essentially flat from US$1,136 in 2017, according to IC Insights. The level peaked...

ASE Technology Holding and its customers have come up with contingency plans to counter possible impact from escalating US-China trade conflicts, but so far no customers have switched orders away from the firm or requested a "change of its position" in their supply chains, according to Tien Wu, chief...

Only through close integration of digital design software, simulation and engineering can perfect clean rooms be available to achieve optimal production performance for semiconductor, biomedicine, precision machines, and more, according to CC Tsai, senior technical engineer at Autodesk Taiwan, a design...

The ISE Labs operated by ASE Technology Holdings has enabled the world's top backend service provider to render IC test and validation services directly to makers of diverse hardware and software systems in 3C, CPU, automotive, healthcare, military and aerospace sectors, according to company sources...

Xilinx will mass roll out its next-generation 7nm FPGA chips in 2019, and TSMC and other Xilinx supply chain partners including Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) and Answer Technology are gearing up for the chips' mass production, according to industry sources.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is set to win all orders for A13 chips that Apple will reelase in 2019, extending its dominance in the pure-play foundry sector, according to supply chain sources.

China will see the birth of some world-class semiconductor equipment suppliers in the next 5-10 years, according to David H Wang, chairman and CEO of ACM Research, a wafer cleaning equipment maker headquartered in Silicon Valley.

ASE Technology Holding, the parent company of IC packagers Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), saw its September revenues increase 10.4% sequentially while memory backend specialist Powertech Technology's (PTI) revenues slipped 4.1% on month.

Taiwan's export value totaled US$29.62 billion in September 2018, hitting the second highest-ever monthly level and growing 4.7% sequentially and 2.6% on year, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Pure-play foundry United Microelectronics (UMC) has reported September consolidated revenues declined 10.1% sequentially to NT$11.86 billion (US$382.7 million), while revenues at specialty IC foundry specialist Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) hit an all-time high of NT$2.64 billion.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reported consolidated revenues for the third quarter of 2018 of NT$260.3 million (US$8.41 million), up 11.6% sequentially and 3.2% on year.

Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has signed letters of intent (LoI) with 23 foreign enterprises for planned investments in Taiwan.

Taiwan-based Ardentec is set to implement its expansion project in 2019, with the additional capacity to start generating revenues as early as the first quarter of 2020, according to industry sources.

Silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers has disclosed plans to build new production lines for 12-inch wafers at its existing plant in South Korea.

The production value of the global foundry industry is expected to grow by a CAGR of 6.2% to reach US$81.94 billion in 2023, the final year of a five-year forecast period, driven by chip demand for mobile devices, automotive, IoT and high-performance computing applications in the AI and upcoming 5G...

As international IDMs are moving at full throttles to develop lucrative high-voltage automotive MOSFETs, Taiwan mid-end and back-end supply chain players are gearing up to win long-term orders for relevant processing services from the IDMs, according to industry sources.

Samsung Electronics has provided its earnings guidance for the third quarter of 2018, estimating record operating profits of about KRW17.5 trillion (US$15.5 billion) on consolidated revenues of approximately KRW65 trillion.

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) component demand for 3D sensing modules is set to boom in 2019 and 2020, as more non-Apple smartphone vendors will be adopting the solutions in their devices, according to industry sources.