DB HiTek Co., a South Korean specialty chip foundry, has been swiftly filling the hole left within the legacy foundry market as Samsung Electronics Co. and TSMC pivot towards high-performing chips for synthetic intelligence.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and Samsung Electronics are scaling again manufacturing of 200 millimeter (8-inch) wafers, which served because the spine of semiconductor manufacturing from the Nineteen Eighties via the early 2000s.
The 2 foundry leaders at the moment are shifting towards 300 mm wafer fabrication for high-performance chips utilized in AI servers, smartphones and electrical autos.
DB HiTek, the second-largest foundry operator in South Korea, has capitalized on the shift.
The corporate makes a speciality of 200 mm wafer fabrication, used to supply legacy chips equivalent to show driver ICs (DDIs) for TVs and energy administration ICs (PMICs) that regulate and distribute electrical energy in digital gadgets.
Rising demand for energy semiconductors is proving a tailwind to DB HiTek, driving its working revenue 71% greater on-year to 47.1 billion gained ($32 million) within the third quarter.
In line with foundry business sources, TSMC plans to chop its 200 mm capability by as much as 30% over the long run.
Samsung has already halved output at its Giheung campus in Gyeonggi Province and is contemplating additional reductions. Each companies proceed to serve current prospects, however are unlikely to broaden legacy traces.
China’s aggressive pricing within the 200 mm section, providing wafers for as little as $2,500, has additionally pushed Samsung and TSMC to shift manufacturing to 300 mm nodes.
Superior 300 mm wafer fabs produce graphic processing items and central processing items for AI servers, software processors for good gadgets and autonomous driving semiconductors, utilizing course of nodes between 3 and 28 nanometers.
With demand for energy semiconductor rising, DB HiTek plans to launch full-scale foundry operations for next-generation energy semiconductors, together with silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), utilizing 200 mm wafers within the fourth quarter of subsequent yr.
