The Tech week that was... Nov 2~6

Welcome to my weekly newsletter with all the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world where you can catch up on all the key news in one easy read.

Despite the rollercoaster ride we have seen this year caused by the pandemic and trade sanctions against Huawei, 2020 is expected to be a good year for most areas of semiconductors and according to the latest market analysis reports this trend is expected to continue into 2021 driven by the digital transformation accelerating due to the pandemic and by 5G infrastructure.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) this week reported their analysis of worldwide semiconductors sales which totalled $113.6 billion in Q3 of 2020. This is up 11.0% compared to Q2 and up 5.8% yoy. Sales for the month of September 2020 were $37.9 billion, an increase of 4.5% sequentially and up 5.8% yoy. 

According to SEMI worldwide silicon wafer area shipments were effectively flat in Q3 after growing strongly in the first half of the year. Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments contracted -0.5% to 3,135 million square inches in Q3 of 2020 compared to the Q2 and were up 6.9% compared to one year ago.

IC Insights have updated their analysis on global sales of Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, Discretes (O-S-D) semiconductors and are seeing a slight recovery in the market after a poor first half. They now predict that the O-S-D sales will show a fall of -4.4% in 2020 compared to 2019 before seeing a recovery in 2021 with 7.7% growth expected. They expect that this year only 3 out of 20 categories will show growth, with laser transmitters being the best category with 6% expected growth.

SEMI also released it’s 300mm Fab outlook report, which forecasts that 300mm fab investments will increase 13% compared to 2019 to reach a new record this year eclipsing the previous record in 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the 2020 surge in fab spending by accelerating digital transformations worldwide, and the increase in spend is expected to continue into 2021 with 4% growth expected. SEMI expects that 38 new Fabs will be build between 2019 and 2024 of which 11 will be in Taiwan and 8 in China.

SK Hynix recorded a decrease in revenue in Q3 to US$7.2billion, down -6% sequentially as server DRAM and SSD demands weakened, and memory prices reduced. Shipment of NAND flash did increase 9% quarter on quarter due to strong growth from the mobile and gaming segments. SK Hynix’s CEO Lee Seok-Hee said that with the acquisition of Intel’s non-volatile memory business unit, he expects sales of NAND flash to triple over the next 5 years

In an interview with Charles Kau, the former chairman of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), China’s leading memory company, he expects the company to close the technology gap for NAND flash as well as the capacity gap with South Korea’s producers by the end of 2022. Kau joined YMTC 5 years ago on a 5 year contract which has just expired.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Huawei is planning on having it’s own Fab in Shanghai, run by the Shanghai IC R&D Centre. The Fab will initially run 45nm technology before making 28nm chips by the end of 2021, and will try to use Chinese manufactured equipment where possible with the eventual aim of using no US semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This would allow Huawei to supply it’s TV, IoT consumer products as well as support it’s 5G infrastructure business to get around the US ban.

Nintendo Co increased it’s sales forecast for it’s hit games console Switch to 24 million devices in the year ending in March from 19 million previously as the COVID-19 pandemic boosts consumer spending on home gaming.

According to the Malaysian Prime Ministers office, hard disk manufacturer Western Digital plans to invest an additional US$560million to further develop it’s production facilities in Malaysia. The new investment will be used to expand the facilities and capacity of Western Digital’s plants in Penang and Sarawak

Meanwhile Apple is reported to be facing supply problems for power management chips for it’s iPhone 12 and other devices according to reports by Bloomberg. The shortage is reported to be caused by Chinese companies stocking up due to trade restrictions and also supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.

If you are interested knowing which companies are supplying IC’s for the new iPhone12 then see the teardown report by ifixit. The iPhone12 logic board includes the Apple A14 Bionic SoC layered with Micron memory, Samsung flash storage, Qualcomm's 5G and LTE transceiver, Qualcomm's 5G modem, Apple's U1 chip and power management controller, and an Avago power amplifier and integrated duplexer, amongst other chips.

Cree Wolfspeed held a “topping off” ceremony for it’s brand new, state-of-the-art, automotive-qualified and 200mm-capable power and radio frequency SiC wafer fabrication facility at the Marcy Nanocenter, near Utica, New York State, and is on schedule for production in 2022.

Qorvo has been chosen by the US Government to build a RF Semiconductor Packaging Centre under the SHIP program. The SHIP program will ensure that microelectronics packaging expertise and leadership is available for both US defence contractors and commercial clients that require design, validation, assembly, test and manufacturing of next-generation RF components.

Separately Qorvo has announced it will acquire Paris based UWB software provider 7Hugs Labs to strengthen Qorvo’s UWB product offering for smartphones and other devices that increase the accuracy of a host of new location and communication services.

Finally as the pandemic continues to accelerate with global cases approaching 50million and over 1.2 million deaths, many countries are reimposing lockdowns of some degree and many people are working at home again. Here is some news about an AI algorithm that can detect people with COVID-19 just from analysis of their cough with a reported 98.5% success rate. This based on analysing about 70,000 audio samples, of which 2,500 were confirmed COVID cases.

That’s all for this week, if you enjoyed this article, why not subscribe to my week newsletter so you don’t miss another issue.

Stay safe and healthy.. bye.