Wafer foundry houses to benefit from rising wearable device market

Wafer foundry houses including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) are expected to benefit from the rise of the wearable device market, according to industry sources.

Since the production of wearable devices requires a number of IC parts, including analog ICs, sensors, power management (PWM) ICs, low-power memory chips, MEMS components and MCUs, demand for foundry services is set to increase robustly soon, particularly after Apple releases its much-awaited iWatch, said the sources.

TSMC, which boasts a comprehensive range of manufacturing processes, is expected to benefit most from the rising sales of wearable devices since the production of IC parts needed for these devices are mostly tailored made by special processing nodes, indicated the sources.

Additionally, since most ICs used in wearable devices can be made on 8-inch wafers, other foundry houses including UMC, Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) will also land windfall orders from the wearable device segment.