The Week In Review: July 6
By Mark LaPedus
MEMC rolled out FOX-Si, a silicon wafer offering designed for delivering advanced finFET technology with oxide dielectric isolation (FOX). Utilizing MEMC’s silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, MEMC can offer FOX-Si wafers at competitive prices.
In Taiwan, capital equipment spending is expected to reach about $9 billion in 2012, an increase from $8.5 billion spent in 2011, according to SEMI.
Worldwide photovoltaic manufacturing equipment billings declined for the third consecutive quarter, falling another 20% for the quarter and 60% from the same quarter last year, according to SEMI.
Photovoltaic polysilicon prices are forecast to drop 48% and wafer prices 56% in 2012, according to Solarbuzz. With such severe price declines, only 12 Chinese PV polysilicon manufacturers are still producing, and more than half of these companies are running at reduced utilization rates. Wafer plant utilization is forecast to average only 53% in 2012, according to the firm.
Global semiconductor sales increased in May, according to the SIA, but the industry is likely to see only modest IC growth in 2012. C.J. Muse, an analyst at Barclays, warned: “Weakening end market trends are starting to show up in the SIA data, with May semi revenue reverting back to negative. We could see semi revenues tracking flat to slightly negative for 2012, versus our official forecast of flat to up +4% Y/Y.”
Tablet shipments will surpass notebook shipments in 2016, according to NPD DisplaySearch.
In a survey, Gartner found that the main activities moving from PCs to media tablets are checking email (81% of respondents), reading the news (69%), checking the weather forecast (63%), social networking (62%) and gaming (60%).
With its planned purchase of Elpida Memory, Micron Technology will become the world’s second-largest supplier of DRAMs, according to IHS iSuppli.
The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC), led by Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics, has announced some new members: ARM, HP and SK Hynix.
Struggling Renesas Electronics is looking at more layoffs and fab closures.
Ramtron, a developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM), has rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from Cypress.
United Microelectronics Corp. has licensed IBM’s technology to expedite the development of the foundry’s next generation 20nm CMOS process with FinFET transistors. This agreement between UMC and IBM is only inclusive of IBM’s 20nm CMOS and FinFET. A spokesman for UMC said: ”UMC will continue with standard CMOS at 20nm and finFET.”
Tags: ARM, Barclays, CMOS, Cypress, economics, Elpida, Gartner, HP, Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium, IHS iSuppli, MEMC, Micron Technology, notebooks, NPD DisplaySearch, photovoltaic, PV, Ramtron, Renesas Electronics, Samsung Electronics, SEMI, SIA, SK Hynix, SOI, Solarbbuzz, UMC