Backend houses have seen their delivery lead times for MCUs, audio ICs, USB interface ICs and power management chips extend all the way to as long as two months from the previous two weeks, due to persistently tight wire-bonding capacity supply, according to market sources.
There are still doubts about actual terminal market demand for TVs, notebooks and PCs in the fourth quarter of the year, but wire-bonding packaging demand for related peripheral chips continue to outstrip capacity supply at main OASTs such as ASE Technology and Greatek Electronics, the sources said.
Not only MCU vendors Holtek Semiconductor, Sonix Technology, Generalplus Technology and Nyquest Technology have reported clear order visibility, but makers of diverse USB interface ICs, audio chips, PMICs and other non-driver ICs have also ramped up packaging demand to meet robust terminal applications, with Genesys Logic, Parade Technologies, Weltrend Semiconductor, Cmedia and Nuvoton Technology among them, the sources continued.
Both ASE and Greatek will sustain full wire-bonding capacity utilization throughout 2021 to serve chipmaking clients in Taiwan and abroad. Many first-tier international chip vendors have even booked their wire-bonding capacity for the first half of 2022 to process mixed-signal ICs and multi-chip modules, with some even projecting 30-50% on-year increases in their packaging demand for next year, noted the sources.
To meet the demand, both firms will be aggressively enforcing capacity expansions. ASE Technology is set to install at least another 1,800 wire-bonders by the end of 2021 before purchasing more in 2022, and Greatek will procure an additional 800 wire-bonders next year, the sources said.
But the uncertain developments of the pandemic, and the growing shortages of lead frames and molding compounds needed for wire-bonding operations may more or less affect shipment performances of the two OSATs and peers including Linsen Precision Industries and Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE), the sources added.
