Special Melted Products, a UK subsidiary of Taiwan-based wire, cable, and stainless steel manufacturer Walsin Lihwa, is partnering with National Taiwan University (NTU) and the University of Sheffield to establish an advanced international research center. The initiative will combine Sheffield's traditional steelmaking base with strengths in heterogeneous integration and compound semiconductors, targeting the aerospace and defense industries as key commercial outlets.

For generations, Sheffield's industrial identity has been forged in steel. Yet behind that familiar legacy, a less visible technological transformation has been unfolding for decades.

Imagine a maintenance robot operating inside a fusion reactor, exposed to temperatures reaching 600 degrees Celsius and intense radiation, with an expected service life of 25 years. Developing electronics capable of surviving such conditions would be an extraordinary engineering achievement. But manufacturing the chips is only half the problem.

AI has propelled the global semiconductor market to record highs, but growth remains concentrated in memory, advanced logic and advanced packaging, areas in which Europe has limited strength. At this week's SEMICON Europa forum in Munich, SEMI and TechInsights identified power semiconductors as Europe's strongest entry point into the AI data centre boom.

DIGITIMES observes that as AI accelerators continue to grow in size, substrate dimensions are gradually moving beyond 100x100mm. Warpage issues in organic substrates have also become increasingly pronounced, prompting industry players to invest in the development of different core-layer materials. Glass, which offers excellent flatness and an adjustable coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) that can be brought closer to that of silicon, can help reduce warpage. As a result, it has emerged as a closely watched core-layer solution and a key focus of future technology development.

Taiwan-based Ta Liang Technology, a printed circuit board (PCB) equipment manufacturer, said its order visibility for PCB and semiconductor equipment extends through 2027, with its PCB equipment backlog reaching four digits and production scheduled for every month of next year. Average lead times stand at five to six months, while the book-to-bill ratio for semiconductor equipment remains above 2.

As global foundry capacity expands and market dynamics shift, competitive pressures have intensified significantly across major manufacturing regions, particularly in mature process nodes, where regional suppliers are rapidly building domestic production capacity. In an interview with DIGITIMES, Jun Kotani, director of business strategy at Tekscend Photomask, shared detailed insights into how the company is defending its commercial leadership through a combination of cost optimization, technical innovation, and strategic geographic positioning.

Zhen Ding Technology said strong seasonal demand for mobile communications products and robust demand for high-end AI applications drove its third-quarter 2026 revenue to a record high. Rising shipments of high-end products and an optimized product mix also lifted gross margin 5.7 percentage points year-over-year to a record 27.7%.

AP Memory Technology reported record-breaking third-quarter 2026 revenue and net profit, driven by surging demand for its integrated passive device (IPD) silicon capacitors under the S-SiCap product family. Order visibility now extends through the second half of 2027. The company projects that as manufacturing capacity expands, silicon capacitor revenue will experience multi-fold growth and surpass its core IoT RAM revenue in 2027.

Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has proposed expanding the list of national core key technologies from 42 to 46 items, with four additions covering satellite communications, AI chip substrates, drones, and biotechnology. The draft is still under public consultation and must be reviewed by a committee before the Executive Yuan can promulgate it, the council said on November 11, 2026.

PCB maker Dynamic Holding reported October 2026 consolidated revenue of NT$10.637 billion (approx. US$323.6 million), down slightly from NT$10.648 billion in September as extended holidays reduced working days, but up 70.3% from NT$6.245 billion a year earlier and the company's second-highest monthly figure on record.

Nichidenbo Corporation said successive AI server generations, designed for higher power consumption and voltages, are increasing demand for high-end capacitors offering high capacitance and resistance to heat and voltage. AI-related products now account for 55–60% of its revenue, up from about 40% in the first quarter, and could exceed 60% in 2027.

DIGITIMES observed that Nvidia is advancing an optics-on-interposer (OOI) architecture that moves the optical engine from an organic substrate to a silicon interposer to increase interconnect density and reduce transmission energy consumption.

Taiwanese passive component makers Yageo and Walsin Technology reported contrasting October results, with Yageo posting record monthly revenue on strong AI demand while Walsin's sales declined from September due to China's National Day holidays. Both companies recorded year-over-year revenue growth of more than 50%.

India's electronics manufacturers are paying sharply more for printed circuit boards (PCBs) as material suppliers shift capacity to artificial intelligence servers, with industry groups warning of production cuts and higher consumer prices.

The AI data center optical interconnect market may soon see another heavyweight contender. Roughly a week after Marvell announced a US$1.15 billion acquisition of Lumentum to bolster its AI optical communications portfolio, Nokia is actively evaluating entry into the optical interconnect space and may even supply laser components directly to the market.

In a Cambridge laboratory, an automated testing machine sits at the end of a process that has traditionally demanded years of specialized engineering: designing a photonic chip, sending it for fabrication, and discovering whether light behaves inside the finished device as simulations predicted.

Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), a compound ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor material, is poised to hit a critical turning point in 2027. Semiconductor supply chain sources indicate that market attention is currently focused on whether substrate prices will reduce past historical trends. Notably, select material suppliers have already signaled to customers that larger price cuts are on the horizon, drawing keen industry interest.

A future communications network capable of detecting certain forms of eavesdropping may depend on something remarkably small: a semiconductor device designed to emit individual particles of light.

The race to build powerful quantum computers has long revolved around an unfamiliar set of engineering challenges: maintaining delicate quantum states, operating complex cooling systems, and scaling processors far beyond the capabilities of today's experimental machines.

Doosan is moving ahead with a roughly KRW970 billion (approx. US$716 million) expansion of copper-clad laminate (CCL) production in South Korea and China as demand for AI accelerators, network switches and high-speed optical modules puts pressure on existing manufacturing capacity.

Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) is approaching a pivotal industrial inflection point. On one hand, wafer sizes are scaling up to seamlessly integrate with existing semiconductor manufacturing lines. On the other hand, material prices are expected to decline substantially starting in 2027. The convergence of these two trends is unlocking commercial viability for this new high-voltage power material, which targets ultra-high-voltage applications above 3,000V and grid infrastructure in the 10kV class.

Higher memory prices caused by tight supply weakened demand for consumer electronics, while investment in Wah Hong Industrial's thermal management division weighed on overall third-quarter performance. The company is accelerating development in AI cooling, semiconductor materials, and other high-value applications to reduce its exposure to market cycles.

PCB manufacturer Zhen Ding Tech (ZDT) reported record revenue for October 2026, driven by peak-season demand for mobile communications products and ramping shipments of high-end AI applications. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue to reach a yearly high as demand for optical modules and AI servers remains strong.

Japan's Nittobo (Nitto Boseki) plans to invest an additional JPY20 billion (approx. US$127 million) to expand production of T-Glass, a specialized low-coefficient-of-thermal-expansion (low-CTE) glass fiber cloth used in advanced semiconductor packaging. The expansion will increase capacity to 3.6 times its fiscal 2025 level by fiscal 2029, reflecting persistent supply shortages and growing demand from AI chipmakers.