World Region – Asia

SMIC, the Beijing and Shanghai foundry company, saw 2017 revenues grow 6.4%  to  $3.1 billion but profits fall 52% to $180 million. Operating profit of $124.9 million was down from $339.2 million in 2016. Gross margin slid to 23.9% in 2017 from 29.2% in 2016, due mainly to rising depreciation costs and lower capacity utilization rates. SMIC shipped about 4.31 million ...

In the war of words between Broadcom and Qualcomm, Broadcom has released an infographic showing Qualcomm’s involvement with Chinese organisations. The infographic is in response to the CFIUS investigation as to whether a successful takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom would lead to China getting its hands on Qualcomm’s 5G technology. Meanwhile  executive chairman Paul Jacobs, son of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin ...

Cobham Wireless has delivered its massive MIMO  test solution to China Mobile Research Institute, to enable the operator to benefit from the capacity and performance gains of digital Massive MIMO technology. The concept of digital Massive MIMO has been introduced in 4.5G technology, vastly improving network capacity and energy efficiency by increasing the number of data signals that can be ...

Nexperia, the former NXP standard products divsion, has opened an assembly, test and warehouse site in Guangdong covering 72,000 square meters, adding an extra 16,000 square meters of production space. This will enable the factory in Guangdong to produce 90 billion parts annually, representing an increase of around 50% depending on product mix, and supporting Nexperia’s ambitious business growth plans for ...

Another sale of semiconductor assets to China has been blocked by the Committee for Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS). Chip test equipment maker Xcerra said that CFIUS had blocked its proposed $580 million sale to China-backed investment fund Hubei Xinyan. “While we are disappointed that we were not able to receive approval from CFIUS on this transaction, Xcerra and ...

LED lighting is having a major impact on the way plants are grown commercially in greenhouses. As a result the horticultural lighting market reached almost $3.8bn in 2017, according to market data from Yole Développement. But changes to the horticultural LED lighting market indicate that greenhouse applications may only be the tip of the iceberg. Emerging applications, including urban farming, ...

The local Chongqing government, Tsinghua Unigroup and Sino IC Capital have set up a $16 billion chip investment fund. They aim to spend up to $100 billion on Tsighua fabs over the next ten years. Tsighua has agreed to spend $9.5 billion on an industrial park in Chongqing. Chongqing is an electronics centre which is is said to have had ...

A mobile hotspot network will deliver 1.25Gbps WiFi to subway customers allowing them to stream HD videos without interruption while underground, thanks to a newly-developed mmWave wireless backhaul technology. The first commercial service using this technology will debut on the Seoul subway system later this year. The technology was developed by ETRI, Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute The network transmits ...

Samsung is to put $12.6 billion into a second line at its Pyeongtaek fab. Line 1 at Pyeongtaek, which cost $14.4 billion, is for NAND. Line 2 is for DRAM. Earlier this week Samsung signed an MOU with China’s NRDC to respond to the shortage in DRAM which has been affecting  the profitability of China’s smartphone manufacturers. “We are planning ...

The top five places in the China smartphone market were taken by Chinese vendors, says Digitimes Research. Huawei is the biggest supplier, Oppo and Xiaomi are tied on No.2, Vivo is No.4 and Lenovo No.5. Oppo and Vivo are both made by the same company – BBK Electronics. After a 10% rise in China smartphone shipments in Q4 to 200 ...