IC business is looking up

ASE, Diodes, RFMD and UMC separately report strong demand. And market research firm IC Insights Inc. Monday (March 8) increased its estimate for 2010 semiconductor growth, saying it now expects chip revenue to increase 27 percent this year, reaching $253 billion. IC Insights had previously predicted that chip revenue would increase 15 percent in 2010.

On the foundry side, Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) reported unaudited net sales of NT$8.6 billion ($270.3 million) for the month of February 2010, up 174.66 percent from a year ago and 0.4 precent from last month.

Taiwan IC-packaging giant Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) reported unaudited consolidated net revenues of NT$12.98 billion ($408.4 million) for February 2010, up 48.8 percent from last month and up 202.9 percent a year ago.

On the wireless front, RF Micro Devices Inc. (Greensboro, N.C.) upgraded its forecast. RFMD now expects to generate quarterly revenue of approximately $240 million to $245 million, which represents approximately 41 percent year-over-year growth at the midpoint of this updated outlook.

''RFMD is experiencing broad-based strength in its core business this quarter, with current customer demand significantly outpacing original expectations in both the cellular products group and multi-market products group,'' according to the company.

''RFMD is seeing particular strength in China and Korea and expects continued market share gains across leading cellular baseband providers and handset manufacturers this calendar year,'' according to the firm.

Citing strong demand, Diodes Inc. (Dallas), a manufacturer and supplier of application specific standard products within the broad discrete and analog semiconductor markets, increased its revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2010. Revenue is expected to range between $134 million and $138 million compared to its previous guidance of $131 million to $137 million.