Latest Semiconductor News Released on September 24 to 30, 2023

 Radeon chief Scott Herkelman is leaving AMD

Scott Herkelman, who's been the Senior VP of Graphics at AMD for seven years, has announced that he is officially departing from the company, in a post this afternoon to X (formerly known as Twitter).

Herkelman said: "After seven years at AMD and launching three generations of increasingly competitive RDNA graphics architecture, I have decided to leave AMD at the end of this year." The fact that he will wait until the end of the year should give AMD time to find a suitable person to fill his position.

Chip startup Rivos to sue a countersuit against Apple

Chip startup Rivos is countersuing Apple to force employees to sign restrictive agreements that prevent them from working elsewhere and stifle emerging companies that employ Apple’s ex-workers.

The countersuit on Friday in federal court in San Jose escalates a bitter trade secrets dispute that began when Apple sued Rivos and former employees who joined the startup last year. Rivos asked the court to rule that Apple's "overbroad" confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements were unenforceable.

Micron breaks ground for chip unit in Gujarat, India

US chipmaker Micron held a groundbreaking ceremony over the weekend, with the first memory assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP) facility. The project is the largest investment under the Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM).

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that within 15 months, India has witnessed one of the largest companies in the semiconductor world - US based Micron Technology - setting up its first factory in India.

Intel hails 'landmark' as high-volume EUV production in Ireland

Chipmaker Intel said on Friday it had begun high-volume production using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines at its $18.5 billion plant in Ireland, calling it a "landmark" moment as it seeks to regain ground on its rivals.

The company says these EUV tools, which are theoretically accurate enough to play a key role in achieving Intel's goal of launching fifth-generation technology within four years.

U.S. expected to lengthen China exemptions for Korean chipmakers: Samsung and SK Hynix

The U.S. government is expected to indefinitely extend Korean chipmakers’ one-year exemptions on controls concerning chip technology exports to China, clearing up some uncertainties surrounding local companies’ Chinese semiconductor manufacturing operations. The official announcement is likely to be made this week, according to industry sources. This will allow Samsung and SK Hynix to ship chip manufacturing equipment to their factories in China.

OpenAI's ChatGPT receives major upgrade

OpenAI launches major ChatGPT Upgrade for voice and image interactions. Users can not only enter text prompts in the text box, but also communicate with ChatGPT through voice or images. The company said the new features will be rolled out to paying users within the next two weeks and will be rolled out to other users soon. Since its release on November 30, 2022, ChatGPT has undergone multiple feature upgrades.

Intel unveils glass substrates for advanced packaging

Intel today announced one of the industry's first glass substrates for next-generation advanced packaging. Compared with the organic substrates used commonly, the glass substrate has superior mechanical, physical and optical properties and can connect more transistors in a single package, which improve ductility and the ability to assemble larger chiplet complexes.

The company also stated that the glass substrate can effectively improve the focus depth of photolithography by virtue of its excellent flatness, increase packaging yield, and reduce processing costs. In addition, the glass substrate also has physical structural stability that is conducive to layer-to-layer interconnection coverage, further increasing the upper limit of packaged transistor density and reducing package power consumption.