The market for microcontrollers (MCUs) —the IC industry’s original system-on-chip (SoC) product category—is expected to continue hitting record-high annual revenues through 2022 after worldwide sales dropped 6 percent in 2016 because of a slowdown in MCU unit shipments. After drawing down MCU inventories in 2016, systems manufacturers stepped up purchases of microcontrollers in 2017 with unit…
Sales of the top 15 semiconductor companies grew by 24 percent in the first half of 2018 (1H18) compared to the 1H17, which is four points higher than the total worldwide semiconductor industry growth during the same period, according to IC Insights’ latest update to the McLean Report. The research also shows that the top…
Editor’s Note: Welcome to AspenCore’s Special Project on Tesla. This article, along with the articles listed at the bottom of the page, looks at Tesla’s manufacturing and supply chain woes and the long road to a Tesla Model 3. Electric vehicle (EV) start-up Tesla has disrupted the electronics supply chain, but not in the way the…
Contract prices of NAND flash products have decreased in the first two quarters of 2018 due to the traditional off-season, and capacity expansion of 64/72-layer 3D NAND flash, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. Further price declines are expected in the third quarter (Q3), although a bit moderated, until the fourth quarter (Q4), when steeper…
U.S. manufacturers that rely on access to electronic components are on the brink of not being able to fulfill their customers’ orders. But manufacturing is still humming: The Institute for Supply Management’s leading factory index, the PMI, increased by 1.4 percent in May to 58.7. However, comments from the computer and electronics sector indicate OEMs…
IC Insights recently released its May Update to the 2018 McClean Report. This Update included a look at the top-25 1Q18 semiconductor suppliers, a discussion of the 1Q18 IC industry market results, and an update of the 2018 capital spending forecast by company. Overall, the capital spending story for 2018 is becoming much more positive…
China has taken a big step in its push into the memory IC industry. Three major Chinese companies are getting ready for trial production of DRAMs and NAND flash in the second half of 2018. YMTC, Innotron (Hefei Chang Xin) and JHICC are scheduled to start trial production of NAND Flash, mobile DRAM and specialty…
Posting the highest year-over-year growth in 14 years, the global semiconductor industry grew 21.7 percent in 2017, reaching $429.1 billion, according to IHS Markit. Another milestone was Samsung toppling Intel as the market leader for the first time in 25 years. Samsung reported 53.6 percent growth in 2017, thanks to rising prices and tight supply of…
The global IC market forecast has been revised upward from 8 percent to 15 percent due to stronger than expected average selling prices (ASPs) for DRAMs and NAND flash devices, according to the latest research from IC Insights. The biggest revisions to IC Insights’ 2018 McLean Report were in the memory market. The growth forecast…
Silicon wafer production capacity last year wasn’t enough to meet supply and demand across several IC segments, particularly memory components and discrete semiconductors, which resulted in component shortages and extended lead times. Wafer capacity is now forecast to increase over the next two years, which will lessen supply constraints and stabilize pricing as more capacity…