Taiwan's backend houses including ASE Technology, Greatek Electronics, Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE), Lingsen Precision Industries and Taiwan IC Packaging have seen clear order visibility for audio chips and MEMS microphones through the end of 2021, which will bolster their revenue gains for the months ahead, according to industry sources.

The backend firms are all sustaining full capacity utilization to fulfill orders from Taiwan vendors of audio amplifiers, audio codecs, and MEMS microphone chip solutions needed for gaming notebooks, next-generation games consoles, and other devices supporting the stay-at-home economy, the sources said, adding that ZillTek Technology, Nuvoton Technoligy and Realtek Semiconductor are among the vendors.

Meanwhile, international IDMs are optimistic that MEMS sensing solutions will be increasingly applied to the automotive electronics field in the longer term, in addition to extensive applications to the IT sector. Their backend partners including ASE Technology and Lingsen are expected to benefit more from the mounting demand for customized high-end MEMS sensors and other related solutions, the sources said.

The sources continued that Taiwan OSATs have extended their delivery lead times for audio chips to two months in most of 2021 from only two weeks in the past years, which may be further prolonged as they continue to land orders shifted from Southeast Asia, where IDMs are operating their in-house packaging plants at reduced capacity amid pandemic-induced lockdowns, the sources indicated.

The OSATs are also aggressively moving to expand wire-bonding capacities for audio chips, MCUs, and power management ICs, but the expansion progress has been affected by delivery lead times for new wire bonders being extended to nine months or longer, the sources said.

By DIGITIMES