Short updates from the semiconductor industry, with context and links to the relevant chapters. RSS
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October 22, 2026 Companies & Market
Everspin Technologies is broadening its MRAM push beyond industrial uses and positioning the memory for AI servers, data centers and satellite systems. The company is pairing its persistent-memory pitch with new manufacturing plans, a CXL-based demonstration, and a strategy to address shortages in NOR flash.
October 23, 2026 Companies & Market
Solidigm has stopped reviewing potential pre-IPO and IPO options after reassessing market conditions and share-price trends. The company still plans to expand U.S. production capacity to meet rising AI memory demand, while SK hynix continues to weigh investment timing, scale and financing methods.
October 25, 2026 Design & EDA
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have developed neural network transistor models for ultra-fast SPICE simulation and standard cell library characterization. The models predict drain current and multiple charge components for a 3 nm nanosheet device, then run through standard-cell characterization and additional analog and digital circuit simulations against an industry-standard reference model. In the reported tests, the neural networks produced delay and total-power estimates with sub-0.11% and 0.76% error, while cutting characterization time by up to 8x.
October 25, 2026 Research
Mivium is positioning itself as a source-material company for gallium nitride, producing phase-pure, submicron GaN powder in Fremont, California and backing it with independent characterization. The company says the same platform can also extend to gallium oxide and boron nitride, while initial GaN deposition work has already started in-house.
October 25, 2026 Companies & Market
GlobalFoundries has launched its Advanced Facilities Control Centre at the Singapore site, bringing together five fab-specific control centres into one command centre in the first phase. Developed with Siemens, the system combines facilities data, operational metrics and AI-based tools to speed troubleshooting, surface root causes earlier and support predictive maintenance across the manufacturing network.
October 26, 2026 Companies & Market
TSMC’s CoWoS-S package has emerged as a decisive integration technology for modern AI hardware. The 2.5D platform combines large logic dies or chiplets with multiple HBM stacks on a silicon interposer, delivering dense short-reach wiring, high memory bandwidth, and tighter power delivery than conventional organic packages can provide.
October 26, 2026 Companies & Market
Infineon will invest about €1.1 billion in Villach to create the world’s first high-volume manufacturing facility for gallium nitride power semiconductors on 300-millimeter wafers in Europe. The ramp-up is scheduled to begin by the end of 2027, with funding support of €319 million under the European Chips Act.
October 26, 2026 Manufacturing & Processes
As silicon photonics moves toward production-scale deployment in data centers, test flows are becoming a central manufacturing problem. Automated optical alignment, polarization control, combined electrical and optical measurements, and integrated instrumentation are all needed to keep throughput and repeatability at HVM levels.
October 26, 2026 Companies & Market
Applied Materials will increase its strategic investment in BE Semiconductor Industries (Besi) to approximately 20 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. The expanded partnership focuses on hybrid bonding, new interconnect architectures, and packaging platforms for 3D IC scaling, logic-memory integration, and die-on-wafer, die-on-die, and die-on-panel assembly.
October 26, 2026 Research
Accellera Systems Initiative has approved Functional Safety Language Standard 1.0, a data model and syntax for moving functional safety information more reliably between tools, engineering teams, and companies. The standard is aimed at a long-standing problem in semiconductor development: keeping assumptions, failure analyses, and verification results aligned as safety data moves from IP to chips and into system integration.
October 26, 2026 Companies & Market
STMicroelectronics has introduced a new family of automotive combination sensors that merge a multi-axis accelerometer and a gyroscope in one ISO 26262-compliant package. The devices are intended to help OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers scale active and passive safety functions from premium vehicles into mass-market platforms, with production already underway.
October 26, 2026 Research
A new industry push is aligning photomask makers, equipment suppliers, and chipmakers around a 12-inch mask format by 2031, driven by a productivity case tied to High-NA EUV. The panel discussion also pointed to growing demand for new mask-etch capability, curvilinear masks, and better supply-chain coordination.
October 26, 2026 Manufacturing & Processes
As co-packaged optics moves toward high-volume manufacturing, test strategies are shifting toward earlier screening, known-good optical engines, and tighter failure isolation. The discussion centers on how to keep expensive GPUs and ASICs from being taken down by a faulty photonics device while controlling the rising cost and complexity of optical test.
October 27, 2026 Research
Exploding bandwidth demand from cloud and AI workloads is pushing optical links closer to silicon, from pluggable transceivers to co-packaged optics and eventually 3D integrated optical fabrics. imec highlights a roadmap built around higher per-lane rates, denser packaging, and heterogeneous electro-optic materials such as lithium niobate, lithium tantalate, and barium titanate.
October 27, 2026 Companies & Market
Infineon has expanded its OptiMOS 7 automotive MOSFET line with new 40 V, 80 V and 100 V devices in the established 10 × 12 mm² TOLL package. The parts combine a clip-based interconnection concept with the existing footprint to cut on-resistance, switching losses and thermal dissipation in 12 V and 48 V automotive power stages.