Webinar: Workforce Armageddon is here. Will your fab survive? Or thrive?

Webinar: Workforce Armageddon is here. Will your fab survive? Or thrive?
by Admin on 08-28-2024 at 2:37 pm

ChipQuest Webinar

Join us for an exclusive 1-hour webinar designed for HR and Learning & Development professionals in the US semiconductor industry. This event will delve into the pressing workforce challenges faced by the semiconductor industry and explore innovative solutions for training and development.

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The Semicon Industry Keeps Wafer Fabs Moving Up

The Semicon Industry Keeps Wafer Fabs Moving Up
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-20-2016 at 7:00 am

The worldwide revenue of semiconductor industry has remained flat in last few years; to be more precise, overall semiconductor revenue declined by 1.9% in 2015 and Gartner forecasts it to further decline by 0.6% in 2016. The total revenue was at record high of $340.3 billion in 2014.

Well, semiconductor industry has matured. A … Read More


How China can Lead in the Semiconductor Industry

How China can Lead in the Semiconductor Industry
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-06-2016 at 8:00 pm

Since a few years China has been very aggressive in acquiring semiconductor companies around the world. Last year, Chinese government along with PE (Private Equity) and other investors in China announced an ambitious plan under which more than $150 billion were to be invested over next 5 to 10 years in developing semiconductor… Read More


A Closer Look at Fab Closures Around the World

A Closer Look at Fab Closures Around the World
by Pawan Fangaria on 06-24-2015 at 12:00 pm

Electronics is unusually an evergreen industry where companies make profit, yet end-product prices go down significantly after a brief period of price skimming. A product phases out quite fast (in case of smartphones every 1.5 to 2 years), but still yields big bucks for successful companies in its value-chain. How does this happen?… Read More


US is the Ultimate Leader in Semiconductor Business

US is the Ultimate Leader in Semiconductor Business
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-07-2015 at 6:00 pm

Last year in November when I looked at the world’s top20 semiconductor companies with Samsungand TSMCbeing at the second and third rank respectively, first being Intel, I computed the sales numbers of the companies based on their countries and found that Taiwan and South Korea accounted for 34.5% of the total sales of the top20 … Read More


Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street

Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street
by Paul McLellan on 04-07-2015 at 7:00 am

SEMI describes themselves as “the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries.” That is a pretty broad remit. One of the things that they do as a neutral party is produce the World Fab Forecast. This is actually a bottom-up database that tracks fabs as they … Read More


Is Fab Business The Forte of APAC?

Is Fab Business The Forte of APAC?
by Pawan Fangaria on 12-23-2014 at 6:00 pm

A little ago, I was looking at the top20 semiconductor companies in the world and was surprised to see a couple of large companies in Taiwan and South Korea garnering >34% of total sales (See – Look who is Leading the World Semiconductor Business). This time it’s another surprise, when I look at IC Insights report on global 300mm… Read More


Evaluate MEMS Devices out-of-fab Before Fabrication

Evaluate MEMS Devices out-of-fab Before Fabrication
by Pawan Fangaria on 03-21-2014 at 10:30 am

MEMS design and fabrication is highly complex in the sense that the fabrication process heavily depends on the design, unlike IC fabrication which has a standard set of processes. A slight change in MEMS design can alter its fabrication steps to a large extent. For example, setting device parameters such as capacitance or linear… Read More


Intel Really is Delaying 14nm Move-in. 450mm is Slipping Too. EUV, who knows?

Intel Really is Delaying 14nm Move-in. 450mm is Slipping Too. EUV, who knows?
by Paul McLellan on 08-24-2013 at 3:23 pm

I attended the semi-annual SEMI Silicon Valley Lunch meeting last week. The semiconductor equipment people are the ones that really know what is going on. People can talk about capex numbers on conference calls but it is the equipment vendors who either do or do not get orders for particular types of equipment. In turn, the analysts… Read More