November 26, 2025

SiC Materials See a Price Increase While 6-Inch Substrate Kicks off a Price War SiC enters a pivotal phase as low-end bulk prices rise on cost pressure while 6-inch substrates plunge amid oversupply. Meanwhile, HPC demand accelerates as NVIDIA and TSMC adopt SiC for advanced thermal management, signaling a new growth wave ahead. TrendForce

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TSMC sues Lo following trade secret probe TSMC has sued former senior VP Lo Wei-jen, alleging he stole trade secrets and leaked them to Intel, violating confidentiality and noncompete agreements. The lawsuit targets his actions while accessing R&D data despite moving to a corporate strategy role. Taipei Times

Effect of Package Warpage and Composite CTE on Failure Modes in Board-Level Thermal Cycling This paper studies board level reliability for surface mount devices during thermal cycling, while specifying failure modes and locations. Failure modes are characterized using thermal warpage and surface strain data. Technical Paper

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ASE Technology to expand assembly, testing capacity to meet AI demand ASE Technology accelerates IC packaging expansion with new Taoyuan and Kaohsiung investments to meet rising AI demand. Working with Hung Ching on added sites, it expects strong CoWoS orders through 2027, signaling steady growth ahead. Focus Taiwan

Nvidia says its GPUs are a 'generation ahead' of Google's AI chips Nvidia defended its AI dominance, asserting its Blackwell chips remain a generation ahead of competitors like Google's TPUs. The company emphasized superior performance, versatility, and market reach, despite Meta exploring alternative AI hardware for its data centers. CNBC

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Technical Papers Package Assembly Design Kits: The Future of Advanced Package Design Novel Molded FCBGA Package Platform For Highly Reliable Automotive Applications Eliminating Interfacial Delamination in High-Power Automotive Devices RAIG Minimizes Corrosion, Allows Higher Gold on ENEPIG A Universal AI-Powered Segmentation Model for PCBA & Semiconductor Peer viewpoint: semiconductor innovation for telecommunication networks Current Characterization of Various Cu RDL Designs In Wafer Level Packages (WLP) MORE TECHNICAL PAPERS

Sponsor Epoxy Offers Ultra High Heat Transfer Bond EP5TC-80 is a NASA low outgassing rated epoxy that achieves a thermal conductivity of 3.3-3.7 W/(m·K), while also retaining its electrical non-conductivity. Master Bond

TSMC stock falls as it sues former exec alleging he took trade secrets to Intel TSMC sued former senior VP Wei-Jen Lo for allegedly leaking confidential trade secrets to Intel after leaving the company. The dispute, involving non-compete and trade secrets laws, triggered investigations and caused TSMC and Intel shares to drop sharply. CNBC

Micross AIT on Track to Deliver 300mm Bumping Onshore Micross is advancing its RESHAPE 300mm bumping line in North Carolina, leveraging 25 years of 200mm experience. Sponsored by DARPA's IBAS program, the initiative integrates Micross's AIT operations and newly acquired Integra testing capabilities. 3DInCites

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AI Plays Multiple Roles Within EDA AI's role in electronic design automation (EDA) is growing rapidly, fueled by LLMs and complex multi-physics challenges. Companies are embedding AI both inside tools for solver-level insights and outside as agentic assistants, enhancing optimization, prediction, and design productivity. Semiconductor Engineering

The Real-World Impact Of Silicon Lifecycle Management On Chip Architectures Silicon lifecycle management is transforming chip design by embedding sensors and telemetry to track performance, aging, and security in real time. The data-driven approach boosts reliability, power efficiency, and yield while speeding adaptive, AI-guided iterations. Semiconductor Engineering

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What Is 3D-IC Technology? Fundamentals, Architecture, And Design Concepts 3D-IC technology pushes past 2D chip limits by vertically stacking logic, memory, and accelerators to shorten interconnects, raise bandwidth, and slash energy use, overcoming scaling roadblocks and delivering higher performance and efficiency for systems. Semiconductor Engineering

Advanced Packaging: Unlocking the Next Wave of Edge AI Innovation Edge AI adoption is surging across sectors as devices head toward 2 billion units by 2030, pushing designers to embrace 3D stacking, TSVs and hybrid bonding to boost bandwidth and efficiency while balancing strict power, thermal and cost limits. EE Times Asia

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Mastiska Raises $10M Seed For Sovereign AI Chip Play in UAE UAE-based Mastiṣka raised $10 million from GCC sovereign wealth funds to develop data-center class AI inference accelerators and establish a UAE-based fabless semiconductor company. The startup aims to advance sovereign silicon for AI, targeting GCC, BRICS & Global South markets. EE Times

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