Your Tech Story

Semiconductor

US Grants Up to $400 Million to Taiwan's GlobalWafers for Semiconductor Boost

US Grants Up to $400 Million to Taiwan’s GlobalWafers for Semiconductor Boost

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

In a significant move to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain, the US Commerce Department announced on Wednesday plans to grant Taiwan’s GlobalWafers up to $400 million. This funding aims to significantly increase the production of silicon wafers within the United States, a crucial component in the manufacturing of advanced semiconductors.

Major Investments in Texas and Missouri

US Grants Up to $400 Million to Taiwan's GlobalWafers for Semiconductor Boost

Image Source: forbes.com

The awarded funds are earmarked for projects in Texas and Missouri, where GlobalWafers will establish the first US production of 300-mm wafers for advanced semiconductors. These projects will also expand the production of silicon-on-insulator wafers. The Commerce Department highlighted that this subsidy would support a substantial $4 billion investment by GlobalWafers in both states. This initiative is expected to create 1,700 construction jobs and 880 manufacturing jobs, signaling a considerable economic boost for the regions involved.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized the strategic importance of this development, stating, “GlobalWafers will play a crucial role in bolstering America’s semiconductor supply chain by providing a domestic source of silicon wafers that are the backbone of advanced chips.” The sentiment was echoed by GlobalWafers Chairwoman and CEO Doris Hsu, who expressed gratitude for the US government’s support, noting, “GlobalWafers is pleased to be a key node in the U.S. semiconductor supply chain.”

Strengthening the US Semiconductor Supply Chain

Currently, GlobalWafers, alongside four other major companies, controls over 80% of the global 300mm silicon wafer manufacturing market. Notably, about 90% of silicon wafers are produced in East Asia, underscoring the strategic importance of developing domestic capabilities.

Under the planned subsidy, GlobalWafers intends to build and expand facilities in Sherman, Texas, for the production of wafers used in leading-edge, mature-node, and memory chips. Additionally, a new facility in St. Peters, Missouri, will focus on producing wafers for defense and aerospace applications. The company also plans to convert part of its existing silicon epitaxy wafer manufacturing facility in Texas to produce silicon carbide epitaxy wafers, which are vital for electric vehicles and clean energy infrastructure.

This expansion aligns with GlobalWafers’ 2022 announcement to construct a $5 billion plant in Texas dedicated to manufacturing 300-mm silicon wafers. This decision came in response to geopolitical concerns and the need to address US semiconductor supply chain resiliency issues, shifting focus from an initially planned investment in Germany.

Also Read: TikTok Suffers Setback in Initial Challenge to EU Big Tech Regulations

The US government’s support for domestic semiconductor production was further solidified with the 2022 approval of the Chips and Science Act, which allocated $52.7 billion in research and manufacturing subsidies. The latest award to GlobalWafers, part of the $30.1 billion announced through the chips subsidy program, is still subject to finalization following the Commerce Department’s due diligence.

This strategic investment in domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities marks a significant step towards enhancing the resilience and security of the US technology supply chain, ensuring that the nation remains competitive in the global semiconductor market.

Advantest

Japan’s Advantest sees AI driving demand for chip testing

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

On Wednesday, Japan’s Advantest Corporation announced that it expects rapid use of advanced semiconductors for generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications to carry on demand for its chip testing machinery.

“We can expect rapid growth in demand. However, we still don’t have concrete visibility,” Advantest CEO Yoshiaki Yoshida told an earnings briefing.

Source: theprint.in

Advantest
Image Source: japantimes.co.jp

As the world’s interest is grabbed by the potential of ChatGPT and other solutions designed at bringing web services more sophisticated and human-like Advantest stocks have soared 36 percent this year, nearing all-time highs. The corporation anticipates that operational profit would increase by 48 percent to 170 billion dollars in the financial year that ended in March.

The industry is expected to decrease this year as a result of clients hoarding surplus inventory, according to Advantest, a global leader in chip testing machinery together with Teradyne Inc. of the United States.

“Despite the fall this year I believe we will eventually face a growth curve,” Yoshida said. Advantest shares have more than doubled in value since the start of the year.

Source: theprint.in

Microsoft, as well as Alphabet’s child company Google, are one of the first to include generative artificial intelligence into their online tools, but a competing race to establish a dominating artificial intelligence platform in the world’s biggest internet marketplace has begun in China, driven by SenseTime, Alibaba Group Holding, Group, as well as Baidu.

Also Read: Intel, Ericsson to work together on custom 5G chip

Data centers are necessary for managing and developing artificial intelligence models that power anything from smart chatbot assistants to self-driving cars. The best hardware at the moment for real-time data analysis is numerous thousands of graphics processors, which are needed to do it.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Masahiro Wakasugi, the expanding usage of AI is straining the capabilities of sophisticated packaging and chip miniaturization, increasing the possibility of production errors.

Chip tester requirement is significantly increased as a result, enabling producers to ensure product quality and performance.

Teradyne, a competing company established in North Reading, Massachusetts, is rivaling Advantest. When a client switches vendors, which is exceedingly uncommon because it requires rethinking more machinery or whole lines of production, as well as retraining people, switching testing instruments might result in an important change in market share between the two.

In a couple of years, outstanding performance Graphics Processing Unit chip testers’ global sales would probably surpass those of smartphone chip testers, according to Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda.

intel

Intel spends $33 billion in Germany in landmark expansion

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

As a portion of its ambition for development in Europe, Intel (INTC.O) will invest over thirty billion euros (approximately 33 billion USD) in developing two chip-making facilities in Magdeburg. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the agreement on Monday as the most significant overseas investment that Germany has ever received.

Intel
Image Source: freetimelearning.com

According to an individual who is acquainted with the situation, Berlin has decided to assist the worth of up to 10 billion euros to the American chipmaker, above the 6.8 billion euros it had previously given Intel to construct two advanced manufacturing plants in the eastern metropolis.

The government along with the territory of Saxony-Anhalt, where Magdeburg is situated, were thanked by the CEO of Intel Pat Gelsinger for achieving the goal of a lively, environmentally friendly, leading-edge semiconductor sector in Germany as well as the EU.

Also Read: Japan’s Suzuki to Make ‘flying cars’ with SkyDrive

To regain its position as the industry leader in chip manufacturing and more effectively rival AMD Nvidia (NVDA.O), (AMD.O), alongside Samsung, Intel has invested billions in constructing plants on three different continents.

“Today’s agreement is an important step for Germany as a high-tech production location – and for our resilience,” Scholz said after Monday’s signing.

“With this investment, we are catching up technologically with the world’s best and expanding our own capacities for the ecosystem development and production of microchips.”

Source: reuters.com

It’s the third significant deal of Intel in just a few days with the German transaction. Whilst Israel announced that Intel will invest a total of $25 billion in manufacturing there on Sunday, Poland, an additional member of the European Union (EU), received proposals for a 4.6 billion USD chip facility on Friday.

As Per McKinsey, the global semiconductor manufacturing market is predicted to grow from 600 billion dollars in 2021 to an estimated trillion-dollar sector by 2030.

having Germany anxious about dropping its appeal as an investment destination, both the United States along with Europe are working to entice major manufacturing companies with a combination of government support and advantageous laws.

Berlin’s authorities are spending millions of euros on incentives to entice technology companies, despite rising concern over the supply chain’s frailty and its reliance on South Korea as well as Taiwan for semiconductors.

“The size of Intel’s reaffirmed and increased commitment to its expansion in Magdeburg speaks louder than words about Germany’s appeal as a high-tech business location,” said Robert Hermann, CEO of government agency Germany Trade & Invest.

Source: reuters.com
Arm

Chipmaker Arm to make its own semiconductor

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

Arm, a company acquired by SoftBank, is creating its own chip to demonstrate the possibilities of its ideas as it looks to expand after a successful IPO subsequently this year.

According to those informed on the development, the corporation will collaborate with manufacturing companies to produce the new chip. They define it as one of the most sophisticated chipmaking endeavours the Cambridge-based organisation has ever undergone.

Arm
Image Source: timesnownews.com

The initiative comes as SoftBank works to increase Arm’s revenue and draw investment to a planned IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange within New York.

Also Read: SAP reports revenue growth in Q1

Instead of engaging directly in the design and development of semiconductors, the corporation typically gives its architectural designs to chip producers.

It is hoped that the prototype will enable it to show the larger market, the strength and potential of its concepts.

With partners like Samsung & Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Arm has already developed several test chips, mostly to help software developers become more acquainted with the latest developments.

However, other business leaders told the Financial Times that the company’s most recent chip, on which it only recently began working, is “more advanced” than anything else. According to them, Arm has also established a bigger team to start this project and is focused on chip manufacturers rather than software developers while developing the product.

As insiders informed on the plan, the business has established a brand-new “solutions engineering” division that will oversee the manufacturing of these initial prototype processors for mobile phones, laptops, and various other gadgets.

A veteran of the chip business Kevork Kechichian, who entered Arm’s core executive division in the month of February, is in charge of the solutions engineering division. Before joining Qualcomm, he worked with chipmakers NXP Semiconductors & NXP Semiconductors, where he oversaw the creation of Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon processor.

The group will also broaden Arm’s current initiatives to improve design performance as well as safety and to increase access for developers to its devices.

Also Read: Meta lays off tech teams, battering employee morale

Rumours regarding Arm’s chip-making activities have raised concerns in the semiconductor sector that, if it produces a high-quality chip, it could attempt to promote it in the years to come and so challenge some of its biggest clients, like MediaTek or Qualcomm.

According to those close to Arm, the company is just developing a prototype and has no ambitions to put it on the market or licence the creation. Arm chose not to respond.

chip

Will China’s new policy help to tackle the chip talent shortage?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

China is stepping up efforts to cultivate domestic semiconductor ability as it attempts to quickly fill a skills gap that has been exacerbated by American efforts to restrict Beijing’s access to cutting-edge chip technology.

Thanks to increased funding for prestigious universities and a boom in smaller, private schools with an emphasis on shorter-term education, enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs has increased over the past five years.

chip
Image Source: theprint.in

While entry-level salaries have doubled, certain graduates with degrees in other fields are being drawn into the expanding sector. A white paper estimates that China will be short 200,000 industry employees this year.

Also Read: Why are OPPO and OnePlus exiting the UK and Europe markets?

Closing this gap is becoming even more crucial since the U.S. wants to cut China out of global supply chains due to concerns that any advanced chips it produces will ultimately be used by China’s military.

Liu Zhongfan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told local media earlier this month that China needs to prioritize developing talent even over finding quick fixes to its supply-chain problems.

Students and experts, however, told Reuters that more modern schools in Taiwan and the US give more practical industry experience than China’s emerging chip curricula. According to a poll conducted in 2022 by the Chinese research company ICWise, more than 60% of students majoring in chip engineering in China graduate without having held a relevant internship.

Professors at Chinese colleges are frequently rewarded for writing papers rather than imparting cutting-edge techniques that are helpful in a company lab or chip manufacturing facility.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), a leading chip manufacturer, has set up research facilities at four universities in Taiwan. In China, there have been some moves in this direction. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), its largest chip foundry, announced in 2021 the establishment of a School of Integrated Circuits at Shenzhen Technology University.

According to Hu Yunwang, founder of a Shanghai-based employment agency for chips, the average yearly salary for an entry-level engineer in the industry has increased since 2018, from approximately 200,000 yuan ($28,722.43) to 400,000 yuan, underscoring the supply-demand imbalance.

Also Read: Accenture to Cut 19000 Jobs as IT Spending Slows

With chip engineering training programs that claim to offer a fast track and primarily target graduates who specialized in a topic tangentially associated with chip engineering, several private schools have popped up to provide a temporary answer.

A former engineer from Arm Ltd. founded EeeKnow in Shanghai in 2015, offering in-person courses on topics like “Cortex-M3 MCU front-end design and verification in 60 days,” costing between 2,000 and 4,000 yuan.

Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor – Company Established From Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By

Freescale Semiconductor offers embedded processing solutions by combining embedded CPUs, complementing semiconductor devices, and software. Its operations are structured around five main product categories: RF, Automotive MCUs, Analog and Sensors, Digital Networking, and Microcontrollers.

About The Company

Freescale Semiconductor was an American company in the business of semiconductor manufacturing. It was established as a result of Motorola‘s 2004 sale of its Semiconductor Products Sector. Freescale concentrated on their integrated circuit devices’ automotive, embedded, and communications areas. In 2006, a private investment group purchased it, and in 2015, it merged with NXP Semiconductors. Automobile security, hybrid and all-electric cars, next-generation wireless infra, smart electricity planning, portable medical equipment, consumer appliances, and smart mobile devices are some of the company’s primary applications and end-markets. The headquarters of Freescale Semiconductor is in Austin, Texas, and it was established on November 9th, 2006.

Freescale Semiconductor
Image source: wikimedia.org

History

Out of the US$27 billion in sales for the entire Motorola company as of 2003, the Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector generated semiconductor sales of US$5.0 billion. On October 6, 2003, Motorola made the announcement that their semiconductor section would be sold off to form Freescale. In 2004, Freescale concluded its IPO at the cost of US$13. It predicted that the shares would cost between US$17.50 and US$19.50, but once the market became less favourable to tech firms, it reduced its pricing to US$13. In 2006, Freescale consented to be acquired by a group led by the Blackstone Group for $17.6 billion. In November 2006, a special shareholder meeting approved the purchase offer. One of the top ten buyouts in history, the transaction concluded in December 2006, is said to be the biggest private acquisition of a technology business. In 2011, the company’s IPO was successfully concluded. The ticker symbol for Freescale on the NYE was FSL. The firm was under investigation for improper activity in connection with this IPO, and at the point of the IPO, it had $7.6 billion in existing debt on its books.

Marvell Semiconductor filed a lawsuit against Freescale for violating seven patents. In 2015, a settlement was reached. Freescale was ordered to pay an unspecified amount as part of a settlement after losing a claim for patent infringement brought by Tessera Corporation.

Products

The primary business division of Freescale, MSG (Micro-controller Solutions Group), is currently the top provider of semiconductors to the automotive industry. It is the main provider of engine system microcontrollers globally. Electronics are used in modern cars to operate the engine for maximum performance and to cut pollution. Freescale’s microcontrollers and analogue power management circuits are used in automobile airbags and anti-lock brake systems. Other integrated sensor products made by Freescale include accelerometer sensors and pressure sensors. Freescale’s NMG (Networking and Multimedia Group) and RASG are two additional significant semiconductor businesses in addition to the MSG business group (RF, Analog and Sensors Group). Until Apple Computer switched to Intel processors in 2006, Freescale had also been a PowerPC microprocessors (ICs) supplier for its PowerBook and Mac mini products. In order to create and advance the use of Power Architecture, they became a founding member of Power.org in 2006. Additionally, Freescale offers a line of Digital Signal Processors (DSP) based on StarCore Technology. Systems for voice-over IP, video infrastructure, and broadband wireless all require DSPs from Freescale.

CEO – Greg Lowe

The CEO of Freescale Semiconductor is Greg Lowe. Lowe formerly worked at Texas Instruments as executive vice president and supervisor of the Analog division before joining Freescale. Lowe received his degree from Stanford University’s Executive Program. In 1984, Mr. Lowe graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Terre Haute, Indiana’s Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.