The semiconductor sector is expected to benefit from the growth of wearable devices in the next few years, SinoPac Securities Investment Service (永豐投顧) said in a report on Tuesday.
Wearable devices are electronic gadgets that combine computing technology and built-in mobile Internet access with embedded sensors that can respond to the wearer’s movements.
As a result, the availability of various sensors will trigger demand of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), thereby boosting the proportion of semiconductor components in such devices, SinoPac said.
In October last year, Gartner Inc said MEMS sensors and microcontroller units such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, electronic compasses and pressure sensors would become popular in mobile devices over the next few years, making them one of the major drivers of the global semiconductor industry.
While wearable devices have yet to mature or become a trend, analysts say more smart bracelets, watches and other products are likely to emerge in the next two years to drive growth in the wearable device segment, following in the footsteps of Google Glass, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch and Nike’s FuelBand bracelet.
The Industrial Economics and Knowledge Research Center (IEK) has predicted the global market value of wearable devices could reach US$5.5 billion this year, up 83.3 percent from last year.
The figure is estimated to increase 72.7 percent to US$9.5 billion next year and expand another 68.4 percent to US$16 billion in 2016, the Taiwan-based researcher said. By 2018, the global market value of wearable devices is estimated to reach US$35 billion, it said.
Against this backdrop, the proportion of semiconductor components used in wearable devices is estimated to hit 18.3 percent in 2018 from 16.8 percent this year, SinoPac said in the report, citing IEK’s forecast.
The global market value of semiconductor components used in wearable devices will also expand at an annual composite growth rate of 53.2 percent to US$6.41 billion in 2018 from US$920 million this year, the report said.
SinoPac said companies in Taiwan’s semiconductor sector such as wafer foundries and chip packagers were likely to secure outsourcing orders from global integrated device manufacturers in the international MEMS supply chain.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Avanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), the world’s largest chip packaging and testing company, IC testing service provider King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電) and memorychip testing service firm Lingsen Precision Industries Ltd (菱生) are likely to enjoy technological and cost advantages over their domestic peers in the coming years, SinoPac said.
Shares of TSMC closed out the year at NT$105.50 on Tuesday, up 8.76 percent for the whole of last year, while ASE finished the year up 9.92 percent at NT$27.7, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data. King Yuan rose 10.54 percent over the last 12 months at NT$20.45 and Lingsen moved up 6.6 percent to NT$16.15, the exchange’s data showed.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS