Canon, one of the world’s major manufacturers of lithography equipment, announced the release of the FPA-1200NZ2C Nano-imprint Lithography (NIL) semiconductor equipment in October.

The CEO, Fujio Mitarai, recently stated that the new nano-imprint lithography technology opens up a new path for small semiconductor manufacturers to produce advanced chips.

Canon’s Semiconductor Equipment Business Manager, Kazunori Iwamoto, explained that nano-imprint lithography involves imprinting a mask with the semiconductor circuit pattern onto a wafer. With a single imprint, complex 2D or 3D circuit patterns can be formed in the appropriate locations. By improving the mask, it might even be possible to produce 2nm chips.

Reportedly, Canon’s nano-imprint lithography is capable of producing a minimum 5nm process size. In the 5nm process segment of the advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment market, currently dominated by ASML’s EUV exposure machines, Canon’s nano-imprint lithography might have the opportunity to narrow the gap.

Regarding equipment costs, Kazunori Iwamoto stated that customer costs vary, and the estimated cost of a single imprint process can sometimes be reduced to half that of traditional exposure equipment processes. Nano-imprint lithography equipment also has a smaller footprint, making it easier to introduce.

Previously, Fujio Mitarai mentioned that the pricing of nano-imprint lithography equipment is one digit less than that of ASML’s EUV equipment. However, the final pricing has not been disclosed yet.

According to NIKKEI’s interview, Iwamoto also indicated that Canon has received numerous inquiries from semiconductor manufacturers, universities, and research institutes. There is anticipation that it could serve as an alternative to EUV, with expectations for the production of various semiconductors, including flash, DRAM for personal computer, and logic ICs.

Read more

• [News] The Battle on Advanced Processes Intensifies as ASML Plans to Produce Ten Equipment Capable of 2nm Chip Production Next Year
• [News] EUV as a Strategic Asset in the Most Advanced Processes: Progress in Intel/TSMC/Samsung’s Adoptions

(Photo credit: Canon)

After more than two years of stagnation in the memory market, which was exacerbated by production cuts from major players like Samsung and Micron earlier this year, the issue of overstock has finally seen improvement.

As per Nikkei’s report, this has driven an increase in prices for DRAM, marking the first such occurrence in nearly two and a half years. Observers are optimistic that the memory market will hit bottom this year, with a recovery and growth expected in 2024.

According to TrendForce’s data, the contract price for the DDR4 8GB, considered a benchmark product for DRAM, reached USD 1.50 in October, a 15.4% increase from September and the first increase since July 2021. The contract price for the same product continued to rise in November by 10%, reaching USD 1.65.

In addition to the DDR4 8GB product, other specifications of DRAM contract prices generally experienced monthly increases of around 10% in October this year. Generally, memory contract prices are determined collaboratively by chip suppliers and corporate customers, and an increase in contract prices signifies an advantage for suppliers.

There are signs of a bottoming out and rebound in the DRAM market in the third quarter of this year. TrendForce indicated that the global DRAM market’s revenue increased by 18% compared to the previous quarter, reaching USD 13.48 billion.

This growth, reportedly, is primarily attributed to production cuts by major suppliers throughout the year, gradually restoring balance to the market supply and demand.

The report also reflects on the pandemic period, noting that the global surge in remote work initially led to a sharp increase in demand for memory. However, as the pandemic gradually subsided in 2021, market demand cooled.

Additionally, persistent challenges such as high inflation and interest rates impacting consumer spending weakened demand for PCs and various consumer electronic devices. This, in turn, led to global oversupply in memory, causing prices to decline consistently.

Major DRAM manufacturers, including Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, have been reducing production since the beginning of this year, and they have recently managed to reverse the downturn.

Samsung reported a 16% revenue growth in the third quarter, while SK Hynix achieved an impressive growth rate of 34.4%. Despite a decline in average selling prices, Micron’s third-quarter chip shipment growth contributed to an overall revenue growth of 4.2%.

Moreover, the global NAND Flash market saw a 2.9% sequential increase in revenue in the third quarter, and a growth rate of 20% is anticipated for the fourth quarter, according to TrendForce’s latest research.

Read more

• [Insights] Due to Year-End Sluggish Demand, Spot Prices Hover for DRAM and NAND Flash
• [News] After Memory Price Hike, Shortages Emerge in Some Products?

(Photo credit: Samsung)

Taiwanese Semiconductor testing and packaging giant ASE announced today that its subsidiary, ASE Semiconductor, will lease the plant in Nanzih, Kaohsiung, owned by Taiwan’s ASE Test Inc., to expand its packaging capacity.

In the announcement, ASE Holdings revealed that ASE Semiconductor would lease a plant in Nanzih District, Kaohsiung, from its subsidiary ASE Test Inc. The total floor area of the building is approximately 15,600 square meters, with an estimated total usage rights asset value of NTD 742 million (approximately USD 23.8 million).

ASE Holdings stated that the primary purpose of this move is to optimize the overall planning and efficient utilization of plant space within the group, as well as to expand ASE’s packaging capacity.

According to CNA’s report, industry sources believe that ASE’s primary objective with this expansion is to enhance its production capacity for advanced packaging of Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips, but it is not directly related to CoWoS packaging.

Market insiders point out that ASE Holdings has been collaborating with foundry on technologies related to advanced packaging interposers and has CoWoS solutions. The earliest expected time for mass production is by the end of this year or early next year.

Reportedly, according to data, ASE’s Kaohsiung plant contributes to approximately 20% of ASE Holding’s overall revenue. The plant primarily provides services such as packaging, wafer bumping and probing, materials, and final testing.

The Kaohsiung plant is also establishing several smart plants, focusing on high-end processes, including Fan-Out packaging, System-in-Package (SiP), wafer bumping, and FlipChip packaging. These technologies find applications in various fields, including automotive, medical, IoT, high-speed computing, artificial intelligence, and application processors.

ASE actively positions itself in various advanced packaging technologies. Notably, the Fan-Out Chip on Substrate with Bridge (FOCoS-Bridge) packaging technology integrates multiple Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), targeting the customized AI chip advanced packaging market.

In addition, ASE Semiconductor has introduced a cross-platform integrated design tool that combines several advanced packaging technologies, addressing the demands of advanced packaging for AI chips.

Read more

• [News] Chinese Semiconductor Design Industry Diverts to Malaysia to Evade U.S. Controls; Potential Advanced Packaging Orders Surge for ASE
• [News] Strong Demand for AI Testing Boosts Revenue Outlook for OSAT like ASE Holdings, KYEC and Sigurd

(Photo credit: ASE)

As one of the key cases in the US-China tech war, American memory giant Micron Technology had mend relations with China. Recently, Micron said a global settlement agreement with state-backed competitor Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit (JHICC) concerning intellectual property theft lawsuits.

According to Bloomberg’s report, on December 24th, Micron has indicated that it has reached a global settlement agreement with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit. A Micron spokesperson stated in an email, “The two companies will each globally dismiss their complaints against the other party and end all lawsuits between them.” However, no further information or details were provided.

In March of this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China conducted a cybersecurity review of Micron products, and in May, it cited cybersecurity concerns as the reason for prohibiting Chinese operators of “critical infrastructure” from using Micron’s chips.

Micron stated that the Chinese restrictions have affected approximately half of its sales related to Chinese customers. Accordingly, Micron derives about a quarter of its global revenue from China and Hong Kong.

Reportedly, industry insiders believe that following the settlement between the two parties, it is not anticipated to have a significant impact on the upward trend of memory prices.

Appeared to have attempted to pacify Beijing, Micron announced in June an increased investment in China, planning to invest over CNY 4.3 billion in the next few years in its packaging and testing facility located in Xi’an, China.

Micron has decided to acquire the packaging equipment of Powertech Semiconductor (Xi’an), planning to construct new facilities at the Micron Xi’an plant and introduce state-of-the-art and high-performance packaging and testing equipment.

In 2017, Micron filed a lawsuit in the United States against Fujian Jinhua and its Taiwanese partner United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), accusing these two companies of stealing trade secrets related to Micron’s memory.

A year later, as the U.S. Department of Justice intensified actions against China in economic espionage cases, Fujian Jinhua and UMC were charged with conspiring to steal Micron’s trade secrets. The Trump administration at the time placed Fujian Jinhua on the so-called Entity List, prohibiting U.S. component sales to this Chinese DRAM maker.

In 2021, UMC and Micron announced a settlement. UMC admitted guilt in an agreement with U.S. prosecutors, and the prosecution agreed to drop the charges of economic espionage and conspiracy.

Nevertheless, the case against Fujian Jinhua by the US Department of Justice remains pending.

Read more

• [News] Memory Giants Samsung & Micron Actively Embrace DDR5 and HBM as Favorable Choices

(Photo credit: Micron)

Samsung Electronics and South Korean internet giant Naver have joined forces to invest in an artificial intelligence semiconductor solution. According to BusinessKorea’s report, the energy efficiency of the first solution chip from the two companies is expected to be roughly eight times higher than competitors like NVIDIA H100.

This new solution is based on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) customized for Naver’s HyperCLOVA X large language model.

Samsung and Naver began their collaboration at the end of 2022, utilizing Samsung’s advanced process technology, expertise in memory technologies like computational storage, processing-in-memory (PIM) and processing-near-memory (PNM), as well as Compute Express Link (CXL). Naver’s strengths in software and AI algorithms are also leveraged in this collaboration.

Samsung has already produced and sold various types of memory and storage technologies for AI applications, including SmartSSD, HBM-PIM, and memory expansion modules with CXL interfaces, all crucial for the upcoming AI chips.

“Through our collaboration with NAVER, we will develop cutting-edge semiconductor solutions to solve the memory bottleneck in large-scale AI systems,” said Jinman Han, Executive Vice President of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics.

Read more

• [News] Memory Market Gradually Recovering, Samsung and SK Hynix Raise Q4 Financial Outlook
• [News] Memory Giants Samsung & Micron Actively Embrace DDR5 and HBM as Favorable Choices

(Photo credit: Samsung)