Renasas to discontinue contract with Powerchip, will shift orders to TSMC

Posted: 21 Sep 2012

According to a recent report by DigiTimes, Renesas Electronics has been looking to shift its foundry orders for driver ICs which are used in Apple iOS devices to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The company is also set to discontinue its contract with Powerchip Technology.

  The company's agreement with powerchip was set to end in the middle of 2012. However, due to the need for aluminium processing technology, the company will gradually increase foundry orders for driver ICs used in iPhones and iPads to TSMC.

In allotting more capacity for the production of non-memory products, including driver ICs and CMOS image sensors, Powerchip has showed signs of reducing its presence in the DRAM market. Powerchip has previously stated that its PC DRAM revenues would fall to 20% or less in 2012.

Renesas will need TSMC's capacity for aluminium-based 80nm process technology for the manufacture of driver ICs used in Apple's iOS products. The IDM vendor currently uses Powerchip's copper processing technology for driver IC production.