Win Semiconductors Corp (Win Semi, 穩懋半導體), the world’s largest compound semiconductor foundry, yesterday said it plans to expand its capacity next year by 14 percent year-on-year, as its factory utilization rate has reached 100 percent due to improved customer demand.
The company plans to add 5,000 wafers to boost its monthly capacity to 41,000 wafers in the second quarter next year, Win Semi president Kyle Chen (陳國樺) told reporters on the sidelines of a SEMICON Taiwan news conference in Taipei.
“We are seeing strong customer orders,” Chen said. “Fourth-quarter performance looks quite good. [Revenue] decline should be milder this year, compared with the levels seen in previous fourth quarters.”
The company usually sees its revenue drop by 10 to 20 percent in the fourth quarter, he said.
Win Semi in July forecast that third-quarter revenue would grow 30 percent quarter-on-quarter to about NT$5.79 billion (US$186.76 million), compared with NT$4.45 billion in the second quarter.
The company is upbeat about growth momentum brought about by 5G technology, as every 5G smartphone is to be equipped with five, six or more power amplifiers, Chen said.
Analysts have forecast that 200 million of the 1.7 billion smartphones forecast to be shipped next year would be outfitted with 5G chips, Chen added.
Win Semi produces semiconductor used in power amplifiers, 3D sensing, WiFi and radio frequency products made from gallium arsenide and other compounds.
Chips made from gallium arsenide are more suitable for 5G applications than those made from silicon as it is superior in terms of higher saturated electron velocity and higher mobility, allowing transistors made from it to function at frequencies in excess of 250 gigahertz, Chen said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
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