According to Digitimes Research’s statistics, global tablet shipments amounted to 31.95 million units in second-quarter 2022, coming short of expectation, as the market fell under negative influences including low season effects and rising global inflation as well as China’s COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, which mainly affected the supply side.

Silan Microelectronics, a Chinese IDM specialized in power semiconductor, has announced plans to invest a total of CNY1.5 billion (US$222.2 million) to establish a 150mm wafer fabrication line for silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET and other power devices. When completed, the facility is expected to produce 144,000 wafers per year.

The global demand for consumer electronics such as smartphones, PCs, notebooks and TVs has significantly been undermined by several headwinds, including pandemics, war, and inflation, resulting in ever-rising inventory levels in various sectors, affecting product prices and market trends.

Third-generation compound semiconductors such as SiC and GaN are very crucial to the future development of electrical vehicles (EV) and green power industries, and heterogeneous integration will play a pivotal role in determining market competitiveness for the WBG (wide bandgap) components, according to Hao-Chung Kuo, director of Semiconductor Research Center under Hon Hai Research Institute.