Steve Sanghi will be staying put as CEO at Microchip Technology, ending his role as interim leader of the microcontroller supplier. The move, announced by the board of directors, telegraphs a prioritization of stability over the search for a new CEO. Still, at almost 70 years old, it’s unlikely Sanghi will stay at the helm of the company for longer than several years.
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake: Renesas has thrown its weight fully behind gallium nitride and will be adding investments to the product line, while hitting pause on silicon carbide. Does this represent a trend rather than the decision of a single company to focus on a segment where it believes it has an edge? Renesas’ move favors the company, because it allows it to concentrate resources and product development efforts on GaN. The latest move raises the question of when and whether Renesas will reconsider SiC anytime soon.
Renesas Electronics has sent a strong signal to the power semiconductor industry, announcing a major expansion of its gallium nitride (GaN) business only weeks after pausing its silicon carbide (SiC) operations.
The move underscores a rapidly shifting landscape in power electronics, where the rivalry between GaN and SiC is intensifying as both technologies vie for dominance in high-growth sectors like AI data centers, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.
Read More »Renesas’ Power IC Strategy Shift Puts the Spotlight on GaN
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake: Perhaps out of fears of being displaced, despite recognizing the limitations and challenges of the technology, engineers and executives at EDA companies, semiconductor suppliers and hyperscalers, have swiftly tried to adopt and integrate artificial intelligence into their workflow. The result is a massive reshaping of the design and production systems with such an intensity that engineers are re-examining the values they bring to the system amidst the realization that skills and knowledge must be upgraded to avoid being relegated to the bottom of the totem pole.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is doing more than just improving chip production. It is completely changing the industry’s fundamental principles.
In the most sophisticated semiconductor fabrication plants, algorithms now make decisions that previously took months or even years of meticulous human effort. From Nvidia Corp.’s state-of-the-art GPU designs to Intel’s hybrid CPU models, AI is accelerating the entire semiconductor ecosystem while confronting unprecedented challenges that redefine competitive landscapes.
The semiconductor industry has always embraced complexity, but today’s demands are extraordinary. As transistors approach atomic scales and chips grow increasingly specialized, conventional design and manufacturing methods have hit critical barriers. Where engineers once combined intuition and incremental improvements to advance Moore’s Law, modern processors, particularly CPUs and GPUs, demand radical innovation. AI has swiftly transitioned from experimental tools to indispensable backbone for industry leaders like NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, TSMC, and EDA pioneers Cadence and Synopsys.
Read More »Chipmakers Race to Keep Up As AI Reshapes IC Design
Nordic Semiconductor has purchased Memfault to expand its offerings beyond the cloud services business.
MEMS pureplay foundry Silex is now under the control of a Swedish investment group. The investors purchased 55 percent of the company from Sai Microelectronics, a Chinese company.
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake: Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman, president, and CEO, of Micron Technology, is 66 years old, well passed the retirement age at the semiconductor memory supplier. We ask: Who will succeed Mehrotra whenever he retires, which can be anytime from now? The list is short for such an important question, considering Mehrotra’s successor will inherit plans that include spending up to $200 billion on new fabs in a market notorious for irregular cycles.
At 66 years old, Sanjay Mehrotra is the oldest chief executive Micron Technology has had since it was founded 47 years ago. Prior to Mehrotra, the company’s leaders either retired or died in office before they were 60.
Mehrotra and Micron have not indicated who is being prepped to succeed the long-term semiconductor executive, but that question cannot be far from the minds of the management, board of directors, and investors. Micron occupies a unique position in the global semiconductor business, being one of the top 5 memory IC vendors, and a key vendor to the rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector.
Whoever takes over at Micron from Mehrotra will inherit a series of mega tasks. The new CEO will have to figure out how to finance the company’s huge spending plan, meet stringent American conditions for CHIPS Act-related grants and loan guarantees, beat, or at least match, stiff and growing competition from the likes of Kioxia, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Western Digital, and plan for the industry’s next numbing downcycle.
Read More »Who Will Succeed Mehrotra as CEO at Micron?
The MEMS market is set to notch another year of growth in 2025, adding to the expansion from 2024, and erasing the single-digit decline from 2023, says semiconductor researcher Yole Group.
By Peter Clarke
What’s at stake: As a semiconductor manufacturing process industrialized in Europe, FDSOI is partially a badge of honor that has served European needs while showing the world that Europe has what it takes in R&D and engineering creativity. But it is a badge that is becoming tarnished and out of date.
Fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) is a style of semiconductor manufacturing that has offered an alternative to planar CMOS and FinFET for many years.
Now, the FDSOI manufacturing process technology is being pushed with European taxpayers’ money, with the goal to get the process down to 10nm and 7nm nominal nodes. FDSOI test chips are expected at 10nm in 2027 with further work happening in 2028 towards achieving the 7nm milestone.
Read More »FDSOI’s Path to 7nm is Blighted by More Push and Little Pull
Wolfspeed has begun a reorganization of its operations with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that will transfer ownership of the company to creditors, including Renesas.
To survive, Wolfspeed, must deal with the effects of legacy actions taken by America’s CFIUS and its former CEO. Troubles in the SiC market will only compound the challenges facing the company. A bankruptcy will offer only temporary reprieve.
