Flash Bit Shipment Rise to be Stymied, TSMC 3nm Shipments to Peak

1. Forecast: Q3 NAND Flash Unit Prices Rise, but Bit Shipments Decrease

According to the latest survey by TrendForce Tibbo Consulting, NAND flash memory prices continued to rise in the second quarter of 2024 due to server terminal inventory adjustments nearing completion and AI driving demand for high-capacity storage products, but because of high inventories at PC and smartphone vendors, NAND flash bit shipments decreased by 1% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, and the average unit price of sales rose by 15%, and total revenue reached US$16.796 billion, up 14.2% from the previous quarter.

All NAND flash suppliers have returned to profitability since Q2 and plan to expand capacity in Q3 to meet strong demand for AI and servers, but the poor performance of PC and smartphone markets in the first half of the year has made it difficult to boost NAND flash shipments.TrendForce estimates that the average unit price of all NAND flash products will increase by 5-10% QoQ in Q3, with bit shipments increasing by 15% due to the peak season. Bit shipments will decrease by at least 5% quarter-over-quarter due to the weak peak season, while industry revenue will remain roughly the same as the previous quarter.

2.TSMC 3nm shipments to meet the peak, is expected to annual revenue growth of 34 per cent

According to fast technology news, recently, TSMC's 3nm process is ushering in the climax of the shipment, is expected to full-year revenue growth will reach 34%, far more than the previous estimate of 26% -29%.

Apple's iPhone 16 series carries the A18 processor will use this process, heralding a new round of growth for TSMC 3nm. Qualcomm and MediaTek's upcoming 5G flagship chips will also use the 3nm process, adding momentum to TSMC's fourth-quarter results. In addition, the upcoming launch of MediaTek's Tengui 9400 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen4 chips are expected to attract more mobile phone brand manufacturers, bringing more orders to TSMC.

In the field of AI chips, AMD's AI chip MI350 series is planned to adopt TSMC's 3nm process, making it an important customer. NVIDIA plans to adopt the 3nm process for its Rubin GPUs in 2026, ensuring the stability of TSMC's future orders. This series of cooperation shows that TSMC's leading position in the field of advanced process continues to be consolidated.

3.Shin-Etsu 12-inch GaN epitaxial QST substrate out of the sample

According to IT news, Japan's Shin-Etsu chemical local time on the 3rd of this month announced the successful development of gallium nitride GaN epitaxial growth of 300mm QST substrate, and has recently begun to supply the relevant samples to customers.

Shin-Etsu Chemical's QST substrate technology from the U.S. enterprise Qromis patent authorisation, this composite material with gallium nitride is closer to the coefficient of thermal expansion, reducing the risk of defects in the gallium nitride epitaxial layer on the large-size substrate, more suitable for large-thickness, high-voltage gallium nitride device manufacturing.

Shin-Etsu Chemical has previously launched 6-inch and 8-inch QST substrates, the 12-inch models developed successfully to help enhance the scale of gallium nitride production, reduce the cost of continuous operation of the production line in the long term, so as to push down the price of gallium nitride products, accelerate the popularity of gallium nitride devices.

4.NXP launched on-chip radar processor chip programme Trimension SR250

NXP (NXP) has announced the launch of Trimension SR250, which is the industry's first on-chip processing capabilities and short-range UWB radar and security ranging combined single-chip solution. The product is part of one of the industry's broadest UWB portfolios, covering devices in automotive, mobile and IoT applications.

The Trimension SR250 combines low-power short-range UWB radar operating at 6-8.5 GHz, safe ranging and angle-of-arrival calculations to enable new use cases based on UWB mapping, human or object detection and safe positioning. This enables convenience, efficiency, safety and privacy features in the smart home, and also supports safety, security and productivity applications in industrial environments with the ability to track the location of workers, goods or assets, access control, collision avoidance, hazardous area detection and more.

5.Wolfspeed Introduces Cutting-Edge Silicon Carbide Module Solution Based on 200mm Wafers

Silicon carbide powerhouse Wolfspeed has announced a silicon carbide module designed to transform the renewable energy, energy storage and high-capacity fast-charging industries through improved efficiency, durability, reliability and scalability. The 2300V substrate-less silicon carbide power module for 1500V DC bus applications was developed and launched using Wolfspeed's state-of-the-art 200mm silicon carbide wafers.

Wolfspeed today announced that it will partner with EPC Power, North America's premier manufacturer of utility-scale inverters, which will use Wolfspeed modules in utility-scale solar and energy storage systems that offer scalable, high-power conversion systems with high-performance control and system redundancy.

6.SK Hynix released high-performance SSD PEB110 E1.S for data centres

SK Hynix announced on the 11th that it has developed PEB110 E1.S (hereinafter referred to as PEB110), a high-performance SSD product suitable for data centres. The company is currently working with global data centre customers to validate PEB110, and plans to begin mass production of the product and supply it to the market in the second quarter of next year after obtaining validation.

The fifth-generation PCIe bandwidth used in this new product is twice as high as the existing fourth-generation, and the data transfer speed of PEB110 reaches 32 GTs. As a result, the performance of PEB110 doubles compared to its predecessor, and the energy efficiency is improved by more than 30 percent. SK Hynix has developed three capacity versions of the product: 2 TB, 4 TB, and 8 TB, and it also supports the OCP3 version 2.5 in order to improve global data centre compatibility.

7. Synopsys Releases 40G UCIe IP for AI Arithmetic Chip

Synopsys announced the industry's first complete UCIe IP comprehensive solution running at up to 40 Gbps per pin to meet the growing compute performance requirements of the world's speed-leading AI data centres. Synopsys 40G UCIe IP will be available by the end of 2024 for a wide range of foundries and their processes.

Synopsys 40G UCIe IP supports organic substrates and high-density advanced packaging technologies, giving developers the flexibility to explore packaging options that fit their needs. The complete solution of this IP, which includes physical layer, controller and verification IP, is a key component of Synopsys' comprehensive and scalable multi-chip system design programme, enabling rapid heterogeneous integration from early architectural exploration to manufacturing.