Shenzhen Xinhuo Future Technology Co., Ltd. Company resources

After the packaging process, integrated circuit (IC) chips must be strictly tested to ensure the quality of products. Chip appearance inspection is an essential and important link, which directly affects the quality of IC products and the smooth progress of subsequent production links. There are three methods of appearance inspection: one is the traditional manual inspection method, which mainly depends on visual inspection and manual sub inspection. It has low reliability, low inspection efficiency, high labor intensity, omissions in inspection defects, and can not adapt to mass production and manufacturing; The second is the detection method based on laser measurement technology, which has high hardware requirements, high cost, high equipment failure rate and difficult maintenance; The third is the detection method based on machine vision. Because the detection system hardware is easy to integrate and realize, the detection speed is fast, the detection accuracy is high, and the use and maintenance is relatively simple, this method is more and more widely used in the field of chip appearance detection, which is a development trend of IC chip appearance detection.

The new MCUXpresso toolset features the newly released MCUXpresso for VS Code, designed for fast and responsive source-code editing. This new IDE will enhance flexibility by expanding build system choices, including those favored by open-source projects such as Zephyr and Matter, while maintaining support for developers using the traditional MCUXpresso SDK. Developers also have access to existing IDE options, including MCUXpresso IDE, IAR Embedded Workbench and Arm® Keil® development tools. Additionally, the new MCUXpresso toolset provides a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for embedded ecosystem integration. The toolset will offer a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that simplifies code reuse and portability within NXP’s broad microcontroller portfolio. All IDEs in the MCUXpresso ecosystem feature Open-CMSIS-Pack support for code delivery, which enables ecosystem partners to significantly streamline the product evaluation and integration process for customers, enabling developers to easily browse a collection of off-the-shelf software. A new Application Launch Pad also serves as a central repository for application design resources, including application software packs, application notes and application code examples with an intuitive portal to browse available software.

According to the latest report from IC Insights, in the 60-year history of the integrated circuit industry, it is known for its cyclical behavior. Looking back to the mid-1970s, the integrated circuit market has not experienced more than three consecutive quarters of decline. Following a 9% decline in the IC market in 3Q22, assuming a decline in the IC market in 4Q22 and 1Q23, the market will mark a historic period from 3Q22 to 1Q23 IC market declines for 7th quarter since (Figure 1) Figure 1: Three consecutive quarters of IC market decline cycles     From the fourth quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2019, the IC market has not experienced a third-quarter decline. In addition, the three-quarter decline in 2001 was the largest on record, with three double-digit declines resulting in a 33% full-year decline—the worst annual decline in IC market history.   Given that the IC industry has never experienced four consecutive quarters of IC market decline, expectations are high that the IC market will resume growth from the second quarter of 2023. While geopolitical issues have been an unpredictable "variable" in IC market growth in the near term, the second quarter of 2023 is currently expected to show a modest 3% growth. However, even with IC sales rebounding from 2Q23, the overall IC market is expected to decline by 6% next year.   From the fourth quarter of 2018 to the second quarter of 2019, the IC market has not experienced a third-quarter decline. In addition, the three-quarter decline in 2001 was the largest on record, with three double-digit declines resulting in a 33% full-year decline—the worst annual decline in IC market history.   Given that the IC industry has never experienced four consecutive quarters of IC market decline, expectations are high that the IC market will resume growth from the second quarter of 2023. While geopolitical issues have been an unpredictable "variable" in IC market growth in the near term, the second quarter of 2023 is currently expected to show a modest 3% growth. However, even with IC sales rebounding from 2Q23, the overall IC market is expected to decline by 6% next year.   However, IC Insights said semiconductor sensor sales are expected to continue to record double-digit percentage growth in 2022, driven by the popularity of "smart" embedded controls and higher selling prices due to tight market supply. However, weak global economic conditions and high inflation have slowed demand for sensor units in consumer electronics, PCs and mainstream smartphones since early summer.   Sensor unit shipments are expected to grow by just 1% in 2022, but will reach a record 30.8 billion units, compared to 30.4 billion in 2021. IC Insights forecasts that total sensor sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 will increase by 13% year-on-year, from $12.7 billion last year to $14.4 billion, a record high (Figure 2)   Tight supply and shortages of sensors for automotive systems, industrial equipment, and other embedded control applications have significantly boosted the average selling price (ASP) of these semiconductors. IC Insights expects total sensor ASPs in 2022 to be 11% higher than in 2021, the largest one-year percentage price increase in more than 20 years. Sales of two major sensor categories are expected to grow by double-digit percentages this year: +15% for acceleration/yaw sensors; +20% for magnetic field sensors (including electronic compass chips often found in navigation applications). Meanwhile, sales of pressure-sensing devices, including microphone chips, are expected to grow just 5% in 2022 due to restrictions on car production and a drop in smartphone shipments this year.   Pressure sensor sales are expected to rise to $4.8 billion this year, with shipments rising just 0.4% to 8.5 billion units. Revenue in the acceleration/yaw category, which includes inertial sensing for accelerometer and gyroscope designs, is expected to reach $5.5 billion in 2022, with unit shipments growing just under 0.5% to $7.1 billion this year. The IC Insights report also shows that magnetic field sensor sales will reach $3.30 in 2022, with shipments rising 1% to $12.7 billion.   Nearly three-quarters of annual semiconductor sensor sales are generated by products using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. MEMS-based devices currently account for 54% of total global sensor unit shipments. Sales of sensors containing MEMS technology are expected to grow 5% this year to a record $10.8 billion, while shipments of these devices are expected to grow 7% to an all-time annual peak of $16.7 billion in 2022.

According to the Nikkei news report, due to the decrease in demand for PCs and smartphones, the price of DRAM has fallen for 12 consecutive months, and it is reported that the current price is close to the cost of materials, and even if the price bottoms out later, it may not show a sharp rise.   In April 2023, the wholesale price of the index product DDR4 8Gb is about US$1.48 each, down 1% from the previous month (March 2023); the price of 4Gb products with a smaller capacity is about US$1.1 each , down 8% from the previous month. Both 8Gb and 4Gb prices fell for the 12th consecutive month. DRAM wholesale prices are determined monthly or quarterly between storage vendors and customers. The report pointed out that storage manufacturers are currently speeding up inventory adjustments. Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung have all announced reductions in production, but usually DRAM production takes 3 months, so Samsung, which cut production at the latest, will not be able to evaluate the effect until after July.   Market sources pointed out that "the current price is approaching the cost of raw materials." Demand is still weak, and manufacturers may continue to cut prices in order to maintain market share. According to Japan Electronics Trading Company, "Even if the price bottoms out between the end of this year and next year, it is not expected to show a sharp rise."   When will the inflection point come? Dawn may be ahead.   According to a TrendForce report, global demand for DRAM chips is expected to exceed supply as early as July, a change that will ease the pressure on semiconductor companies struggling due to chip downturns.   In addition, it is expected that global DRAM demand will exceed 105.4 billion 2GB chips this year, exceeding the estimated supply of 104.3 billion. It is worth mentioning that TrendForce also recently adjusted the oversupply of memory chips this year: among them, the forecast for DRAM was adjusted from 0.9% to -1%, and the forecast for NAND Flash was lowered from 3%. -0.5% - a positive value means oversupply, a negative value means the opposite.   From the demand side, although the demand for PCs and smartphones was small in the early stage, the orders for AI server DDR5 have been pouring in recently, and the demand for high value-added DRAM such as HBM and DDR5 has also continued to rise. Urgent orders have already appeared in some demand fields of memory manufacturers, and customer demand has recovered, and urgent orders have poured in, and "there is a lot of volume."   Under such circumstances, TrendForce has also recently raised its 2Q average price forecast for 32GB DDR5 from US$75 to US$80-90. The chairman of Nanya Branch said that since the second quarter of DRAM, some market inventories have been eliminated, and suppliers have reduced capital expenditures. In the second half of the year, the inventory of end products may become normal, and the DRAM market may gradually improve. The chairman of Etron revealed that the inventory level of the DRAM industry has begun to shrink. Under the trend of decreasing output of storage original factories, half of the company's niche DRAM customers are "active" at this stage, and it is expected that this proportion will return to 100% by the end of the year. Among them, the recovery in the field of display is more significant. In addition, the price of DRAM products has also stabilized.   The China National Finance Securities Research Report stated that on the price side, memory prices have fallen below the lowest level in history, and the potential price decline is small. On the supply side, the inventory of original manufacturers has begun to decrease, and the inventory of module manufacturers has gradually bottomed out, and the effect of proactive destocking is obvious. On the demand side, the launch of new-generation CPUs for servers and increased demand for AI will increase the demand for high-performance products such as DDR5 and HBM and high-density modules. Storage prices are expected to gradually approach the bottom of the down cycle, and it is optimistic that the storage sector will stop falling in the second and third quarters of 2023.