The three top outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) companies are expected to see their system-in-package (SiP) sales increased up to 20% this year, according to Yole Development.These companies are ASE of Taiwan, Amkor Technology of the US and JCET of China.Yole Development projects

Fab equipment maker ASML plans to manufacture 60 units of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) systems in 2023, the chief of the Netherlands-based firm said.During the conference call for the second quarter, ASML CEO Peter Wennink said the company plans to manufacture around 40 units this year.This will be exp

Samsung Electronics has started the development of a lidar sensor for autonomous driving, TheElec has learned.The company was aiming to commercialize the technology in 2026, people familiar with the matter said.Samsung is aiming to strengthen its automotive business, they said. The company launched

Samsung will start applying pellicles in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) process used in advanced chip production starting in 2023, TheElec has learned.Pellicles, which are used to protect masks from dusts, will be used in mass production starting in late 2023, people familiar with Samsung’s internal

Nextchip said on Monday that it has started development of advanced driver assistance system SoC Apache 6.Prototype of the chip will be released in the second half of 2022, the company said.Apache 6 is the successor to Apache 5, which has neural processing unit (NPU) applied.The new chip will have s

Fabless firm Siliconarts said on Monday that it has launched its general-purpose GPU IP called RAIV.General-purpose GPU is used for AI software for deep learning and machine learning.Siliconarts said its RAIV IP can process big data used for deep learning or machine learning fast.It also supports ma

Fab equipment maker Hanmi Semiconductor said on Monday that it has recorded 108.7 billion won in sales and 35.7 billion won in operating income in the second quarter.It is the company’s best quarterly sales figure to date.Sales increased 77% from the same time period in 2020, while operating income

Micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) market is expected to grow 11% this year compared to a year ago thanks to increase in demand from smartphones and wearable devices, according to market research firm Yole Development.MEMS refers to microscopic devices. Microphones, sensors and other devices wi

Apple’s sales from its own chips increased 54% year-on-year in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.Cupertino recorded US$2 billion in sales from its A series of application processor on its iPhones and M series of AP from its Mac PCs, the analyst firm said.Apple introduced the M serie

Nexperia, a Dutch chip firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it will acquire UK chip foundry Newport Wafer Fab.CNBC said in its report that the deal is worth 63 million pounds.Nexperia will own a 100% stake in Newport’s fab in Wales.The UK foundry’s fab was founded in 1982 and has a pr

Fab equipment firm Exicon said on Wednesday that it has supplied a prototype of its burn-in tester to Samsung.The deal was worth 10.7 billion won and Exicon will be supplying more of the units up to December this year.Exicon primarily manufactures memory tester and solid-state drive tester. DRAM tes

Packaging firm Polaris Works said on Tuesday that it will begin supplying its automotive image sensor package called NeoPAC Encap to image sensor company Pixelplus this month.The package is for 5.6 micrometer pixel size VGA (688x528) automobile rear cameras. It will first be supplied to a Chinese ca

Samsung has put in requests to its CMOS image sensors testers to expand their capacity, TheElec has learned.The South Korean tech giant is guaranteeing orders for its testing partners as it is expecting high demand for CMOS image sensors in the second half of the year, people familiar with the matte

The shortage in automobile chips that started late last year is expected to ease slightly starting in the third quarter of 2021, according to market research firm IHS Markit.Automobile OEMs around the world suspended their car production multiple times in the first half due to the shortage.This tren

Unitest, a South Korean fab equipment vendor which supplies kits to SK Hynix, is close to completing its new factory at Pyeongtaek.The factory will start operation within the year at the earliest, people familiar with the matter told TheElec.Unitest’s production capacity will triple once the factory

Texas Instruments said on Wednesday that it will be acquiring Micron’s fab in Lehi, Utah for US$900 million.Back in March, Micro had said it would sell the 300mm fab.Texas Instruments has now secured four 300mm fab through this deal.The company plans to manufacture 65- and 45-nanometer analog and em

DRAM and NAND flash prices remained flat in June from the previous month, according to DRAMeXchange.The fixed price of PC DDR4 8Gb was US$3.8 in June, the same as the in May. The prices of the second and third months of a quarter usually remains the same as new contracts are negotiated at the start

SK Hynix is preparing to end its business relationship with its design house partner ADTechnology, TheElec has learned.The South Korean memory giant had used the design house to have TSMC make its NAND flash controllers.But as ADTechnology recently ended its value chain aggregator (VCA) contract wit

SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND business unit has received the approval from UK’s antitrust watchdog.The Competition and Markets Authority gave its unconditional approval of the deal on Monday.In October last year, the South Korean memory giant announced that it would be acquiring Intel’s NAN

The semiconductor industry has focused on reducing the size of the chip so far. But microfabrication today is nearing its limits. Technology competition between semiconductor companies are now moving to packaging, which is moving away from traditional wire bonding and soldering to multi-function, ve