Samsung is diversifying its solid-state drive (SSD) tester supply chain as it prepares to mass-produce SSDs with next-generation interfaces.The South Korean tech giant recently held an open bidding meeting for SSD tester suppliers in a bid to secure new suppliers, sources said.Samsung has since then

DB HiTek had spent more than it initially planned on fab equipment in 2021 thanks to the high demand for its 8-inch foundry services.The company said on Wednesday it spent 49.3 billion won in equipment during the fourth quarter last year.It has already spent 65.9 billion won in equipment up to the t

TES is close to finishing the development of a low-k material deposition equipment, which will be the first from a South Korean company.The company is close to wrapping up its low-k plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) equipment, sources said.Low-k material refers to materials that have

Fab equipment maker Exicon said on Friday that it has supplied 31.59 billion won worth of inspection equipment to Samsung Electronics.Most of the equipment are solid-state drive (SSD) testers, which are used to evaluate the performance and reliability of SSDs during the back-end process.The testers

Eugenetec is currently developing a titanium nitride atomic layer deposition (TiN-ALD) equipment for application in 10-nanometer (nm) DRAM production, TheElec has learned.The equipment is used to form the electrode films of the capacitors in DRAM.Eugenetec began development for the new equipment lat

QRT said on Thursday that it will use its focused ion beam (FIB) technology to offer advanced semiconductor defect analysis.The company currently offers FIB equipment to offer semiconductor circuit correction service.This allows chip companies save time and money of mask adjustment and wafer fabrica

Dry etching equipment maker APTC was developing a 300mm oxide etching equipment with the aim to offer it for a demo text in 2023, TheElec has learned.Etching is a front-end process in wafer fabrication where parts of the wafer not needed after the circuit patterns are drawn are etched out.Oxide film

Hanmi Semiconductor said on Thursday that it has supplied its Micro SAW T2101 dual-chuck saw to a global automotive semiconductor company.The company said the saw can cut conventional packages as well as those that are thick or need water-proofing.Hanmi Semiconductor said it expected to ship more sa

Semiconductor wafer maker SK Siltron said on Wednesday that it plans to spend 1 trillion won for the next three years to expand its production of 300mm wafers.Additional facilities will be built on 42,716 meter-square of land and construction will start during the first half of 2022, the company sai

Intel said on Tuesday that it plans to spend 17 billion euros, or approximately US$19 billion, to build new chip plants in the city of Magdeburg in Germany.Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also said that the company plans to spend around US$90 billion for the next ten years in Europe to build additional chip

E-SOL, the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solution subsidiary of FST, is developing a ‘lite’ version of its EUV pellicle inspection equipment.The model will be smaller with a lower price tag compared to EPTR, which the company completed development during the fourth quarter last year, the company said.EU

South Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) companies saw their revenues increase by double-digits in 2021, their filings showed.OSAT companies handle packaging and testing of processed wafers. They are seeing demand for their services increase from the ongoing global chip shor

China’s market share in the global foundry market is expected to remain flat for the next five years, according to analyst firm IC Insights.The country accounted for 8.5% of the global foundry market in 2021 but this will only grow to 8.8% by 2026, according to the firm.China peaked at taking 11.4%

Pre-owned fab equipment seller Surplus Global is planning to enter the fab equipment component distribution business.The company said it was building a platform that distributes, repairs and offers quality assurance for legacy components, people familiar with the matter said.Surplus Global plans to

A 14-nanometer (nm) AI SoC designed with SemiFive’s design platform will go into production during the second half of the year, the company said on Friday.The development of the AI chip, which was designed for data center and edge AI applications, had been completed last year in collaboration with t

Chip reliability testing firm QRT said on Wednesday that it has filed a patent for developing a semiconductor device for protection against electrostatic discharge, or ESD.The patent allows the chip to efficiently release ESD to protect the circuits, the company said.It also allows such semiconducto

Fab scrubber and chiller firm GST is aiming to supply one of its chillers to a major Taiwanese chipmaker within the year.The South Korean kit maker has been demo testing the equipment with the potential customer since November of last year, sources said.GST could win the order sometime in the second

Qualcomm has given the foundry order for its 3-nanometer (nm) application processor launching next year exclusively to TSMC, TheElec has learned.The US chip giant has also given some of the foundry work for its 4nm application processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, to the Taiwanese chip giant, which it

Apple was developing the chip modules and packages to be used in its so-called Apple Car with a South Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company, TheElec has learned.The project started last year and is expected to be completed in 2023, sources said.The move coincides with Taiw

The CEO of AI chip platform startup Openedges Technology expects the company to experience double to triple growth per year going forward from high demand for its IP solutions.The company launched its mixed-precision (4/8bit) computation neural network processing unit (NPU) IP dubbed Enlight last mo