Supply chain sources said UMC is evaluating plans to build a new 12-inch wafer fab in Mie Prefecture in central Japan. UMC is the world’s third-largest foundry and a major supplier to Denso and other Japanese chipmakers.

▲ UMC triple factory, picture source: UMC official website

The factory will be UMC’s second chip manufacturing plant in Japan, UMC’s first factory in Japan is Fujitsu Semiconductor’s Mie factory. The new 12-inch fab in Japan means a major shift in UMC’s strategy for building a fab. For decades, UMC has maintained most of its production in the area where its headquarters is located, and UMC’s move has allowed nearly half of its 12-inch wafers to be produced in Japan.

It is learned that UMC controls more than 20% of the global chip foundry service market, and its customers include Samsung, Qualcomm, and MediaTek. In addition, UMC also provides foundry services for important automotive chip manufacturers such as Denso, NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics and Infineon.

The post UMC is considering building a new 12-inch fab in Japan appeared first on TechGoing.

The industry attributed the decline in utilization to the issue of declining IT demand in the global economic downturn. With the prolongation of the economic downturn, demand from downstream industries such as smartphones, personal computers and home appliances has been shrinking, while the server market, which should have been robust recently, has also weakened.

In addition, the capacity utilization rate of TSMC, the world’s number one foundry, has also declined. The industry estimates that TSMC’s average foundry utilization rate is 70-75%.

Foreign media believe that the impact of the decline in foundry utilization rate on DB HiTek, Key Foundry, SK Hynix IC, Magner Chip and other 8-inch foundry companies has a greater impact. DB HiTek maintains 60-70% of the start-up rate, but in the case of some 8-inch foundries, the start-up rate has fallen to 50% of the level.

As utilization rates decline, the profit picture is expected to be burdened. Coupled with the increased burden of fixed costs, some foundries have begun to reduce prices, for example, UMC announced that it will start to reduce prices by 10% from the second quarter of this year.

Foreign media said that some Korean foundries have also recently begun to reduce prices. An 8-inch wafer foundry industry leader said, “We are currently making price concessions to strategic customers to small and medium-sized wafer foundries.”

However, industry insiders predict that the decline in foundry utilization will be temporary. This is because demand for semiconductors is steadily increasing with the commercialization of autonomous driving, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies, and the demand for semiconductor replacement, which has been delayed due to the recession, is high.

Jeong Ki-bong, vice president of Samsung Electronics foundry division, said in a conference call held after last year’s fourth-quarter earnings announcement, “We expect demand and market conditions to recover in the second half of the year, mainly in HPC, data centers and automotive.”

The post The operating rate of wafer foundries such as Samsung Electronics is declining appeared first on TechGoing.

The new facility is said to be more than 30 percent larger than RFAB1, providing more than 630,000 square feet of total cleanroom space between the two facilities. 24 kilometers of automated overhead conveyor systems will seamlessly transfer wafers between the two facilities once completed.

Once fully operational, the Richardson facility will produce more than 100 million analog chips per day that will be used in a variety of electronics applications from renewable energy to electric vehicles.

RFAB1 is the world’s first analog semiconductor manufacturing facility to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which is designed to meet high levels of structural efficiency and sustainability criteria in rating systems.

RFAB2 expands TI’s existing 12-inch fab lineup. At the same time, it is also one of six new 12-inch fabs added by TI to enhance internal manufacturing capabilities, which together will enhance TI’s broad and diverse analog and embedded processing semiconductor products production. ti acquired LFAB in Utah in 2021 and is currently preparing for initial production to begin in the coming months. ti also announced last year four new plants in Sherman, Texas plants in Sherman, Texas, for a total investment of $30 billion. Construction of the first and second plants is underway, and the first plant is expected to be operational in 2025.

The post Texas Instruments (TI) begins initial production 12-inch wafer fab appeared first on TechGoing.