Silfex, Lam Research’s subsidiary in South Korea, is facing problems with producing silicon (Si) rings, TheElec has learned.This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is preventing production staff from going to work normally.Lam Research was considering procuring Si rings from Hana Materials as an a

Key Foundry said on Tuesday that it will offer its third-generation 0.18 micrometer Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process to customers.BCD process combines bipolar process that controls analog signals, CMOS to control digital signals and DMOS for high power processing, into one chip.It is mainly used to p

South Korea vacuum robot maker Raon Tech has won two major semiconductor customers in South Korea.The company has been supplying its vacuum robot to one of them in 2011.It has passed the demo test from another company and has been producing the robots from them since early 2020, TheElec has learned.

Auros Technology said on Monday that it was close to winning a new order from China within the month.A company spokesperson said results remained to be seen but the situation has been positive up to now.If Auros win the contract, it will be supplying its DRAM production equipment.Company CEO Lee Jun

Japan’s Renesas Electronics said on Monday that it was in talks with UK’s Dialog Semiconductor to potentially acquire the firm.Dialog previously supplied power management IC to Apple. But the company saw sales decline starting in 2019 after Apple began using its own chips. Dialog was in talks with S

Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson warned of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) to the environment at his keynote speech during Semicon Korea on Friday.Dickerson said if AI data centers are built with the current technology, data centers will be consuming 15% of global power by 2025.This c

The combined sales of the top five semiconductor foundries in the world will increase 10% in 2021 from a year prior, VLSIresearch president Risto Puhakka said on Thursday.TSMC, Samsung Foundry, SMIC, GlobalFounderies and UMC combined will record US$80 billion in sales this year, the president said a

SK Hynix said on Thursday that it plans to install more water scrubbers in the cooling systems at its chip factories.Water scrubbers are used to block gas and chemicals formed during chip production from being released to the atmosphere. Catalysts and water are used during this process. SK Hynix sai

Samsung Electronics was considering Austin, Texas, for a new US$17 billion chip plant, according to a report by Reuters.The South Korean tech giant is seeking tax abatement of US$805.5 million over 20 years from Travis County and the city of Austin, documents seen by Reuters showed.The documents say

3D NAND flash scaling require technology that can reduce the stress on thin films, a Lam Research executive said on Thursday.Production of high performance was leading to more bow on wafers, Lam Research marketing manager Alice Hollister said at Semicon Korea. Technology that can control stress to a

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said Thursday that he expects the shortage in foundry production capacity will continue up to the first half of 2021.The CEO told Reuters that the company sell more chips if it could produce more.Qualcomm reported the earnings for its fiscal first quarter (October to De

Samsung Electronics said on Thursday that it plans to expand the application of magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM).MRAM stores data in magnetic domains, unlike most RAMs that store them in electric charge or current flows.The company improved the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) function of its MRAM to make

Wafer fab equipment spending is expected to exceed US$70 billion in 2022, hitting an all time high from high demand for semiconductors, SEMI director Clark Tseng said.The fab equipment spending will reach US$66 billion this year, double that of US$30 billion in 2012.Spending will increase in wafer f

SK Hynix said on Wednesday that the company’s ultimate aim for its semiconductor fabs are to make them fully autonomous.Company manager Jeong Yu-in said its 300mm wafer fab were currently Level 3 to 4 in autonomy. SK Hynix will need to collaborate with the equipment industry and academia to get clos

A SK Hynix executive said on Wednesday that low-power semiconductors could help ease environmental problems.Company executive vice president Cha Seon Yong said the company’s shift from DDR4 to DDR5 saved power worth a year of power consumption from those consumed for year by all the street lamps in

SK Hynix will apply peri under cell (PUC) technology to its next-generation phase-change RAM (PRAM), the company said on Wednesday.PRAM combines the advantages of DRAM and NAND flash. Intel retained its Optane business, which is based on PRAM technology, when it sold its NAND unit to SK Hynix. PRAM

Employees of SK Hynix dispatched to China had their quarantine period extended from two weeks to three, TheElec has learned.This is due to the cities of Wuhan and Chongqing, where the company has factories, extending the quarantine period to prevent the spread of COVID-19.A SK Hynix spokesperson sai

Analog Devices’ country manager post for South Korea has been vacant for a couple of months, with the company saying it has now intention of naming someone to the post for the short-term.Previous Head of Korea, Hong Sa-kwak, stepped down on October 2020. Analog Devices’ Asia Pacific (APAC) arm was o

SK Hynix said Monday that it has completed the construction of its M16 fab, which will produce next-generation DRAM using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) process.The fab will begin producing Gen 4 10-nm (1a) DRAM in the second half of 2021, the company said.Construction for the factory began in November 2

Semiconductor IP company Chips&Media posted 15.4 billion won in sales and 2.38 billion won in operating profit in 2020, the company said.It is a drop of 4.6% and 33.8%, respectively, from 2019.The company said most of it sales come from the US and China. While China showed a quick recovery from the