Csun Manufacturing has transitioned from producing constant temperature ovens and automatic exposure machines to becoming a semiconductor equipment supplier, focusing on wafer foundry and advanced packaging process tools. The market's interest extends beyond Csun's order volume to its long-term strategy, including the company's succession plan.
Niching Industrial, a Taiwan-based semiconductor materials and components distributor, has experienced a significant resurgence in orders for its three primary product lines – IC packaging solutions, driver ICs, and substrates – in the third quarter of 2024.
Despite recent disruptions in the automotive supply chain and varying perspectives on the automotive market among industry players, PANJIT, a major power semiconductor and integrated device manufacturer (IDM), has recently achieved a historic high in automotive revenue, reaching its 2024 goals ahead of schedule. The company remains optimistic about international markets and continues to strengthen its global presence, particularly in the promising Indian market.
PSA Walsin Technology's printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing arm, Global Brands Manufacture, has inaugurated its new ELNA plant in Penang, Malaysia. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by top executives from the company, along with local government officials and industry leaders.
With geopolitical tensions increasing, countries have placed even more importance on essential products and supply chains. Nikkei compiled data from several research institutes and conducted market research on important global products and services in 2023, including areas such as AI text and image generators, green energy supply chains including solar panels and wind turbines, as well as semiconductor materials.
In artificial intelligence (AI), especially within deep learning and large-scale data processing, maintaining memory coherence is critical. AI models often rely on extensive parallel processing, where different parts of the model or separate data batches are processed simultaneously by multiple processors.
The power conversion demands and power density requirements of data centers are constantly increasing, with materials such as wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) becoming the core of new-generation power conversion technology.
Increasing silicon carbide (SiC) substrate supply from China at lower prices is expected to fuel Taiwan-based foundry houses' diversification into compound semiconductors.
As the semiconductor industry faces unprecedented demand for cutting-edge technologies, Imec, a global leader in nanoelectronics research, is stepping up as the essential bridge between groundbreaking innovation and commercial success.
Elna Printed Circuits, a subsidiary of PCB manufacturer Global Brands Manufacture (GBM) under Walsin Technology Group, has inaugurated a new PCB facility in Penang, Malaysia.
In July 2024, Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited Taiwan to strengthen bilateral ties between the two regions, aiming to attract Taiwanese semiconductor companies to set up operations in Texas. As part of this effort, Abbott signed an economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and established the State of Texas Taiwan Office (STTO).
Reportedly, Samsung Electronics (Samsung) is investing in equipment for the GaN foundry market. South Korea-based reports say that Samsung's import scale is smaller this time, presumably as preparation for "initial production."
Taiwan Applied Crystal (TAC), a subsidiary of Largan Precision in which the Taiwanese lens maker holds a more than 70% stake, has just begun seeing its years-long investment in silicon carbide (SiC) compound semiconductors bear fruit, with sample deliveries of its 6-inch substrates scheduled to begin in October, and 8-inch samples to be delivered at the end of 2024 or early 2025.
SEMICON Taiwan 2024 has just concluded, and industry observers have noted one key difference compared to previous years: the number of equipment manufacturers participating, which is considerably higher than in past exhibitions.
The burgeoning AI industry is accelerating the arrival of the silicon photonics (SiPh) era, and Taiwan's industry is actively promoting various integration efforts to seize the growing business opportunities. This includes an international silicon photonics industry chain matchmaking and cooperation event organized by the Taiwan Optoelectronic Semiconductor Industry Association (TOSIA) and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
The Canada-Taiwan Semiconductor Co-Innovation Forum, held on September 6 in Hsinchu during the week of SEMICON Taiwan 2024, attracted Taiwanese semiconductor supply chain companies eager to advance their products toward mass production within the next two to three years.
In the silicon photonics packaging and testing interface sector, WinWay Technology has intensified its efforts and anticipates that its co-packaged optics (CPO) product will be prepared for commercial manufacture by 2025 to 2026.
The British semiconductor delegation, composed of 24 firms led by the UK Government's National Technology Adviser Dave Smith, has made its splash at SEMICON for the second year in a row.
Zhen Ding Technology made its debut at SEMICON Taiwan 2024, where the company highlighted the expanding role of IC substrates in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is boosting rapid advancements in data center construction but with increasingly massive power demands. Research institutions predict that energy consumption in data centers will grow exponentially in the coming years, resulting in significant carbon emissions—an issue that contrasts sharply with the global push towards net-zero carbon.
Canada is poised to play a crucial role in advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the coming years. As the country holds vital solutions to overcome various industry challenges, its significance is steadily growing. Recently, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, drew media attention during a lecture at Stanford, where he stated that Canada should be a key partner for the United States in meeting the escalating energy demands of AI. However, energy is just one facet of Canada's success story in the AI landscape.
The semiconductor power components market is witnessing intense competition among three key players: Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT), and the emerging Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors. As of the first half of 2024, each technology has made significant advancements, with SiC and GaN primarily vying to capture market share from the incumbent IGBT, while facing their own unique challenges.
The second-quarter financial reports of tech giants have been gradually released, with Nvidia delivering results that exceeded expectations, maintaining year-over-year growth, quarter-over-quarter growth, and increased gross margins. However, questions remain about whether the AI momentum will continue in the second half of the year and whether the supply of Blackwell GPUs will remain on schedule.
Starting in early 2025, IBM Cloud will allow customers to use Intel's latest Gaudi 3 AI accelerators. This marks the first publically known, major cloud industry customer for Gaudi 3 since its announcement in December 2023.
