Driver IC Order Squeezing Foundry

Thanks to the increasing demand for smart phones and tablet PCs, the demand for small and medium size LCD driver ICs has increased significantly. Major suppliers including Renesas, South Korea’s Samsung, Taiwan’s UnionPay, and Silicon have aggressively expanded their wafers. The foundry and sealing and testing plant orders, and the upcoming Apple iPad2 and iPhone5, also reported to send personnel to Taiwan to help suppliers consolidate wafer foundry and packaging and testing capacity.

According to legal person assessment, the foundry production capacity in the first half of March will be tight, and the production capacity for sealing and testing in the latter part of April will also be insufficient. This includes companies such as Powerchip (5346), World Advanced (5347), and Shan State (6147). Hui, and does not rule out the second quarter will increase the foundry and foundry prices. It is understood that the 12-inch wafer foundry price may increase by 5% to 10%, and the foundry foundry price will increase by 5%.

Since smart phones and tablet PCs have high requirements for LCD driver ICs, including support for WVGA high resolution and touch screens, as well as functions such as energy saving and backlight adjustment, the process miniaturization of small and medium size LCD driver ICs has been implemented. It was officially launched in the second half of last year.

For low-end smart phones or tablet PCs, the LCD driver IC process has been scaled down from 0.18 micron to 0.13 micron, while LCD driver ICs used in high-end products require built-in high-capacity static random access memory. The (SRAM) unit has been switched to a 12-inch factory with a 90 nm projection.

Including Japan's Renesas, South Korea's Samsung, United Electronics, Hao Li, Etron and other small and medium size LCD driver IC suppliers, last year's fourth quarter inventory dematerialization has just been completed, and now facing the customer additional orders, since January has been actively expanding the number of The round foundry chip, including Powerchip, the world's most advanced LCD driver IC foundry, this season orders increased by 20% to 30% from the previous quarter, production capacity will appear tight in March.

Because LCD driver ICs are being transferred into advanced processes, the latter-stage closure and measurement plant actively adjusts production capacity, but the expansion rate is not as fast as the increase in orders. The industry estimates that production capacity will be tight in March or April, and 12-inch crystals in the second quarter. There will be short supply gaps for the production capacity of round gold bumps and driver ICs.

According to industry experts, the second quarter will enter the peak period of the first wave of high-resolution LCD driver ICs. According to the current orders from upstream customers, the production capacity of wafer foundry and packaging will be insufficient in the next quarter, so it includes 12-inch crystals. The foundry prices for OEMs, gold bumps, and driver IC tests have been brewing and escalating, among which the initial price increase of foundry prices will reach 5% to 10%, while the price of wafer foundry will increase by less than 5%.