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.

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...

Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC), a foundry subsidiary of Powerchip Technology, has enjoyed robust demand for smartphone-use sensors which is filling its 12-inch fab capacity.

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

Worldwide semiconductor sales grew nearly 3% sequentially in October. However, sales posted an on-year decline for the 10th consecutive month.

China's GigaDevice, and Taiwan-based Winbond Electronics and Macronix International have been aggressively expanding their automotive NOR flash offerings eyeing a bigger share in the high-end market segment, according to industry sources.

Demand for 5G smartphones is expected to pick up fast next year, with mobile SoC prices for these handsets to stay at high levels at least in the first half of 2020. Tight capacity at TSMC's 7nm node will prevent production cost for 5G mobile chip from falling and Andriod phone vendors will not have...

Average selling prices (ASP) for memory could rise as much as 30% in 2020, driven mainly by strong demand for server and mobile applications, according to industry sources.

The prospect of 5G definitely looks promising, but players in the supply chain have to make sure they have sufficient support from one another in order to fully enjoy the opportunities promised by the arrival of 5G. Chipmakers and their partners are gearing up to build key...

The memory sector is expected to resume growth momentum in 2020 thanks to steady increase in demand for 5G and server applications, with DRAM and NAND flash to see supply shortfalls in second-half 2020, accoding to industry sources.

The global NAND flash memory industry grew 10% in output value sequentially in the third quarter, when bit shipments registered a nearly 15% increase, according to DRAMeXchange.

MediaTek has launched its next-generation 5G SoC family, Dimensity. The launch made a splash with high-ranking executives from many fellow semiconductor firms, including TSMC and ASE, attending. MediaTek, as one of the biggest IC designers...

The supply of NOR flash memory is likely to fall short of demand in 2020, with the gap estimated at up to 10%, according to industry sources.

Intel's CPU shortages are expected to continue haunting the PC industry in the first quarter of 2020, and may even last into the second quarter, undermining demand for SSDs from the PC sector next year, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The memory market market is expected to recover next year, but suppliers remain cautious about expanding output. Samsung's bit growth for NAND flash output reportedly may drop to as low as 25%. In the foundry sector, China-based Wuhan...

China has set up a CNY147.2 billion (US$20.94 billion) national fund aimed at spurring transformations and upgrades at its manufacturing industries to turn the country into a smart production center, according to industry sources.

Samsung Electronics' NAND flash bit supply growth is expected to drop below 30% and even 25% in 2020, down from 35-40% this year, according to industry sources.

The handset market is welcoming the arrival of 5G smartphones, shipments for which may range from 200 million to 300 million units in 2020. Such volumes for 5G smartphones mean 4G devices will still be here to stay. IC desingers believe 4G phone replacement demand from users not yet ready to upgrade...

Taiwan-based memory module manufacturers have expressed optimism about their performances in 2020, when chip prices and demand are set to recover at a modest pace.

Production of Taiwan's manufacturing industry totaled NT$3.37 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, down 7.01% on year, making the third consecutive quarter of on-year declines due mainly to the US-China trade tensions, according to figures from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

FOPLP (fan-out panel level package) will be a new option that is not meant to support pushes to 7nm, 5nm or even more advanced nodes but rather to provide a packaging solution that can achieve IC scaling without adopting costly advanced fabrication processes, according to DK Tsai, chairman of Taiwan-based...

Intel is expected to rank as the largest semiconductor supplier and have sales that are 26% larger than Samsung in 2019, according to IC Insights.

Sales in the global DRAM market grew 4.1% sequentially to US$15.45 billion in the third quarter of 2019, following three quarters of sequential drops, according to DRAMeXchange.

After a disappointing year, the memory industry is expected to recover in 2020, thanks to momentum coming from 5G-driven demand. Memory module makers and their backend partners have already seen demand picking up, with memory chip vendors...

To further nurture its own memory industry, China's second national IC industry investment fund, also known as Big Fund Phase II, has recently invested in Longsys Electronics, becoming the second largest shareholder of the Shenzhen-based memory company, according to industry sources.