The Tech week that was... Feb 26 ~ Mar 1

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly newsletter bringing you all the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world in one easy read.  What a week it was with many highs and lows.  Will India finally gets it’s first wafer fabs?  TSMC opens in Japan, Intel Foundry is formally announced, the US CHIPs Act fund is over subscribed and Apple is reported to have cancelled two major projects.

India is reported to have approved construction of 2 Fabs and 1 packaging facility for a total investment of US$15billion.  One fab will be jointly owned by Tata and Powerchip in Dholera, Gujarat.  Tata will provide US$11billion investment with Powerchip chip design and manufacturing services focusing on 28nm technology.   Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test will set up the semiconductor packaging plant in Morigaon, Assam, with an investment of US$3.26 billion focusing on advanced packaging solutions.   CG Power, in partnership with Japan's Renesas and Thailand's Stars Microelectronics will set up the third factory in Sanand, Gujarat, with an investment of nearly US$1 billion. Construction of all 3 plants is due to start within 3 months.

TSMC held an opening ceremony for it’s new Japanese Fab JASM in Kumamoto Prefecture.  The JV Fab is majority owned by TSMC with Sony, Denso and Toyota as minority stakeholders.  The Fab opens just 2 years after construction was started in 2022 and mass production is planned for later this year.  The Fab when fully ramped will be capable of 45,000 12” wafers per months and will focus on 22/28nm technology. TSMC also announced it has decided to build a 2nd phase which will take technology capability down to 6/7nm technology and the total capacity to over 100,000 12” wafers. The total investment for the 2 Fab site will be over US$20billion with strong support from the Japanese Government.

TSMC has announced the promotion and appointment of 2 new eVP’s and Co-COO’s.  Dr. Y.J. Mii (currently Senior Vice President of R&D) and Mr. Y.P. Chy(currently Senior Vice President of Operations) are both promoted to eVP and co-chief operating officers (COO) from 1st March reporting to CEO CC Wei. Both are veterans of TSMC with at least 30years experience with the company.  In connection with the two new appointments, TSMC’s SVP of Europe & Asia sales, Cliff Hou, will become Chyn’s deputy, while business development SVP Kevin Zhang will serve as Mii’s deputy.

Intel has announced the launch of Intel Foundry this week and released details of it’s technology roadmap.  Intel has plans to be the 2nd largest foundry by 2030 and Intel claims it is the first systems based foundry for the AI era.  Intel plans to offer it’s 18A technology by the end of 2024, which is designed to compete with TSMC’s N2 technology and has it’s 14A technology on the roadmap in 2027.

Intel has officially launched Altera as a new standalone FPGA company, with Sandra Rivera as it’s new CEO.  Altera will continue to operate as an Intel company with its own profit and loss sheet.  9 years ago Intel acquired FPGA maker Altera for US$16.7billion, now Intel is reviving the name form it’s new stand alone company.

Taiwan’s Globalwafers, the world #3 wafer supplier grew it’s revenue in 2023 by 0.5% to US$2.25billion despite the headwinds in the market.  The company said it maintained high factory utilization rates last year for float-zone silicon wafers and compound semiconductor wafers, and is positive about the demand outlook this year.

Microns new mega Fab campus in New York is under US environmental review.  Micron intends to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years to construct the 1,400-acre (570-hectare) campus in Clay, New York, with $20 billion planned by 2030 with construction starting next year. The review will take at least a few months to complete and is part of the process required by federal law to start construction.

Funding from the US CHIPs Act fund is in high demand according to the latest statement from the U.S. department of Commerce.  They have received funding requests of more than US$70billion for the US$39billion fund and the leading companies may only receive around half of what they are asking for.  The U.S. department of Commerce has now decided to prioritise projects that will be operational by 2030.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Electricity launched the American-Made Silicon Carbide (SiC)  Packaging Prize. This $2.25 million contest invites competitors to propose, design, build, and test state-of-the-art SiC semiconductor packaging prototypes.

2024 is not a good year for microLED’s with ams OSRAM announcing that it has had it’s microLED project cancelled by it’s major customer and speculation that Apple is cancelling or pushing out it’s microLED display project and US based microLED packaging company Rohinni filing for bankruptcy.

This week ams OSRAM announced that its "cornerstone project" underpinning it’s microLED strategy was unexpectedly cancelled, triggering ams Osram to re-assess its microLED strategy. As a first estimate ams-Osram believes it will have impairment charges of $650-$900 million and it will also likely to cancel or delay some of its investments in Malaysia. 

MacRumors and many other websites are reporting that Apple has postponed for the foreseeable future it’s planned microLED display for the Apple watch due to microLED production costs too high to be economically viable.

US-based microLED packaging pioneer Rohinni has filed for bankruptcy and shutdown after reporting a 96% drop of revenue in 2023.  Rohinni was established in 2013 and provided advanced precision semiconductor placement solutions company focused on semiconductor advanced packaging for mini and microLED applications. 

Apple is reported to have cancelled it’s Apple car project after having spent more than an estimated US$10billion on the project and employing approx. 2,000 people.   Instead Apple will focus on AI and the VisionPro.  The secretive Apple car project was initially started in 2014, but in 2016 it was rumoured the project was shelved before being back on again by 2020. 

In market research news..

 Smartphone sales are forecast to grow 2.8% in 2024 according to IDC.  2024 is set to be the year that the smartphone market swings back to growth as 6 years of contraction.  Smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.20 billion units in 2024.

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Stay safe and healthy... bye