A reluctance to invest by major chip manufacturers presumably intensifies the global chip shortage, which has persisted since 2020 and is leading to delivery bottlenecks for PC hardware, notebooks, household appliances and cars, among other things. The focus is currently on Texas Instruments (TI) as one of the most important suppliers of analog circuits.
One Taiwan Specialist Service Report Digitimes according to shows, for example, the TSMC chip order maker pointing his finger at TI. TSMC and other manufacturers could therefore produce more silicon chips, but there is a lack of smaller semiconductor components for further processing of notebooks or graphics cards, for example. For example, TI produces power management circuits (PMICs) for voltage regulation and hardware drivers for displays.
the German Foundation New Responsibility also writes in a reportthat components such as chip carriers are still in short supply. Processors, systems-on-chips (SoCs) and graphics chips, among others, require such carriers made of Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) before manufacturers can marry them off with circuit boards. AMD boss Lisa Su already expressed a defect in early 2021.
The dreaded pig cycle
In July 2021 quoted the news agency Bloomberg TI-Managerwho are afraid of what is known as the pig cycle. Manufacturers are expanding their production, which potentially leads to saturation of the market and as a result of falling demand and falling prices. In particular, companies that hoard chips are currently said to make the market unpredictable. By the summer, Texas Instruments’ internal inventories fell well below the desired level of 130 to 190 days of pre-production. As a result, Texas Instruments willingly dropped sales in the past few quarters.
Starts in Sherman, Texas According to a new announcement, TI plans to build a new manufacturing complex next year, which, however, will not expose silicon wafers with a diameter of 300 mm until 2025. Two semiconductor factories will initially be built at the site, with two more to follow later if necessary – the total investment in the four factories will amount to around 30 billion US dollars.
TI had begun construction of the RFAB2 semiconductor plant in Richardson, Texas, before the coronavirus pandemic began, which led to high chip demand. The RFAB2 is to be completed “shortly”. In addition, TI is taking over Micron’s semiconductor plant in Lehi, Utah, where its own series production is not expected to start until 2023.
(mmma)
