The global semiconductor material market was worth US$55.3 billion in 2020, according to SEMI.This was a rise of 5% from 2019, the organization said. This year, it will grow 6% to be worth US$58.7 billion, SEMI said.South Korea, Taiwan and China will lead this growth. South Korea’s semiconductor mat

Applied Materials has touted its latest optical wafer inspection system that utilizes big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in South Korea.The company said at an online press event for South Korean media that it plans to expand its supply of its systems from foundry and logic to mem

DB HiTek is planning to expand its image sensor foundry business.The company said on Friday that it has developed global shutter and single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) processes based on its 110-nanometer (nm) platform.The South Korean foundry will begin multi-wafer project program for fabless cus

TSMC said on Wednesday that it suffered a power outage at its P14 plant which was recovered on the same day, according to Reuters.Some of the machines still worked during the outage thanks to backup systems, the Taiwanese chip giant said.The company will investigate the damages caused by the outage.

Samsung Electronics is planning to sell around 400 units of fab equipment to UMC to be used in the latter’s factory in Taiwan, according Taiwan Economic Daily.The pair has recently signed a contract for UMC to manufacture Samsung’s image sensors.The equipment will be used in UMC’s P6 plant at Nanke.

TSMC said on Thursday that it will invest US$100 billion in the next three years to expand its production capacity, according to Reuters.The Taiwanese chip giant also said it will work with its customers to overcome the current global chip shortage.Last year, Intel announced that it is planning to s

The top 40 semiconductor and display equipment companies in South Korea saw their operating income and sales increase substantially in 2020.The companies combined recorded 12.72 trillion won in sales and 1.22 trillion won in operating income, an increase of 25.8% and 66.5%, respectively, from 2019,

Coasia said on Monday at it shareholders’ meeting that it strengthen its camera module business this year.It will also focus on expanding its system semiconductor business, which it started in 2020, the company said.Coasia will take part in the management of Coasia Optics, formerly called Diostech,

System semiconductor startup Qualitas said on Monday that it will develop an 112Gb/s Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) IP aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) and data center applications.Companies such as Cadence, Synopsys, Rambus, Marvell, Credo and Alphawave are competing fiercely in SerDes IP. Q

Solus Advanced Materials on Friday named former SK Hynix president Suh Kwang-pyuk as a new independent CEO at its shareholders’ meeting and board meeting.He will become the joint CEO to current CEO Chin Dae-jae. CEO Lee Yoon-seok, which oversaw the company along with Chin, will step down from his po

Intel is planning to spend US$20 billion into building two new factories in Arizona, while restarting its foundry business.Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said on Tuesday that the foundry market will grow to be worth US$100 billion in 2025. The US chip giant will secure production facilities in Europe and U

Hanwha Techwin has started development of 8-nanometer (nm) system-on-a-chip (SoC) for CCTVs this year, TheElec has learned.The company is aiming to reduce reliance on China’s HiSilicon, which has previously supplied the CCTV chips.Hanwha is using South Korean design house company for the design. Sam

The Korea Automobile Association (KAA) and Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA) signed a MOU on Wednesday for collaboration.The MOU singed following the formation of a council for collaboration between the two industries on March 4.KAA and KSIA’s partnership is done in light of the recent

Fab equipment spending in 2020 increased 16% compared to 2019, according to SEMI.Spending is expected to increase 15.5% this year to reach over US$70 billion, according to the organization. It will increase 12% in 2022 to over US$80 billion.Fab equipment spending increased substantially for three ye

Shareholders of Samsung Electronics were in fierce disagreement over whether company vice chairman Lee Jae-yong should remain in his post following his conviction and jail term from bribery charges, during the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday One shareholder, who said they were mem

South Korean fabless semiconductor companies recorded noticeably polarizing earnings in 2020.TheElec collected earnings of the top 17 fabless companies, including design houses and chipless firms, and based on revenue in South Korea.The four top companies, Silicon Works, ADTechnology, Abov Semicondu

Samsung’s suspension of its semiconductor plant in Austin due to power outage will increase prices of solid-state drives (SSD), market research firm TrendForce says.Client SSD prices will increase between 3 to 8% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, the firm said. Prices of enterpris

KNW said on Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Solvay Korea.The company acquired 4 million shares for 20 billion won.KNW has secured fluorine (F2) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) businesses through the acquisition. The chemicals are used for semiconductor production and as insulators in g

Coasia said on Wednesday had the most number of engineers among its competitors within Samsung Foundry’s ecosystem.The company, combined with its subsidiary Coasia Semi, had 210 engineers, a Coasia spokesperson said.By contrast, Samsung Foundry’s other design house partners Hanatec, Alpha Holdings,

South Korean display equipment manufacturer SFA was developing technologies for the production for next-generation display panels, the company CEO said.SFA was actively developing transfer, bonding, inspection and repair technologies as competition between MiniLED, quantum dot organic light emitting