May 1, 2026

Intel’s stock more than doubles in April for best month in chipmaker’s 55 years on Nasdaq Intel shares surged 114% in April as a turnaround gains momentum, driven by rising AI-related CPU demand, promising 18A chips, and foundry ambitions. Government support and new customers fuel optimism despite past losses and execution challenges. CNBC

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Micross Components Appoints James J. Cannon as President and Chief Executive Officer Micross Components appoints Jim Cannon as President and CEO, succeeding Vincent Buffa, who stays as senior advisor and board member. Cannon brings 25+ years defense and industrial leadership experience to drive growth in microelectronics for critical markets. 3DInCites

Die-on-Tab for Compound Semiconductors: Enabling Advanced RF Power Systems This white paper explains why die-on-tab is critical for GaN and GaAs RF power devices, improving heat dissipation, reliability, and system life. Download now. Technical Paper

Sponsor Particle-Free Plasma Cleaning Turnkey plasma systems for semiconductor packaging. Highly reliable. Perfect for high-mix or high-volume manufacturing. Learn more. Surfx Technologies

Athos Scraps Multi-Vendor Roadmap, Plans Chiplet Tape-Out Athos Silicon, spun out from Mercedes-Benz, redesigned its roadmap around a single in-house chiplet instead of multi-vendor architecture. The startup prioritizes cost competitiveness and control while maintaining safety through redundant diagnostic voting compute systems for autonomous driving applications. EE Times

Google cloud growth tops Microsoft and Amazon as all three beat estimates on AI demand Google, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure beat earnings estimates as AI-driven cloud demand surged. Google led with record 63% growth, while AWS rose 28% and Azure 40%. Massive AI investment drives $600B capex and rising neocloud competition. CNBC

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Technical Papers Alpha Particle Emissions: An Overlooked Risk for Soft Errors in Advanced Packaging Revolutionizing IC Packaging with High-Density RDL Technology EOTPR Fine pitch probing for die-to-die interconnect failure analysis in chiplet devices Die-on-Tab for Compound Semiconductors: Enabling Advanced RF Power Systems Package Assembly Design Kits: The Future of Advanced Package Design Novel Molded FCBGA Package Platform For Highly Reliable Automotive Applications Eliminating Interfacial Delamination in High-Power Automotive Devices MORE TECHNICAL PAPERS

Sponsor Is copper sintering the future of WBG semiconductors? Silver dominates today, but copper is catching up fast. Explore the cost, reliability, and sustainability shifts reshaping GaN and SiC die attach technology. Henkel AG & Co.

Samsung, SK Hynix flag record supply squeeze in memory market as AI demand soars Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix warn of a severe global memory chip supply crunch as AI demand surges. Orders outstrip capacity, HBM4 is fully booked, customers pre-book 2027 supply, and both firms post record profits while expanding China fabs. South China Morning Post

Transforming DRC Closure At Advanced Nodes As SoCs reach 2nm and below, engineers face massive DRC violation volumes and shifting constraints. Teams replace slow, batch debugging with real-time, AI-driven, instance-complete analysis that exposes all errors early, prioritizes fixes, and accelerates coordinated closure. Semiconductor Engineering

Sponsor Temporary Bonding Materials Boost throughput and quality with Brewer Science's BrewerBOND® VersaLayer temporary bonding system for high-temperature (400˚C) and high-stress applications. Brewer Science

Creating Agentic EDA Methodologies EDA AI evolves from single-tool optimization to full agentic flows, but lack of architectural tools, fragmented abstractions, and inconsistent data hinder progress. Industry players explore LLMs, shift-left prediction, and open interfaces to connect specifications through RTL while managing risk. Semiconductor Engineering

Foundry Capacity Is Limiting Who Competes At Leading Edge Nodes Device scaling slows while demand for leading-edge nodes surges, straining capacity dominated by TSMC and major chipmakers. Rising costs and limited access push the industry toward chiplets and advanced packaging, reshaping design choices, innovation paths, and competition for smaller firms. Semiconductor Engineering

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From Standards To Systems: The Chiplet Era On Arm Arm is shifting from monolithic SoCs to chiplet-based systems, building on AMBA, ACSA and OCP FCSA standards. It emphasizes coherent, system-level data movement and orchestration across heterogeneous compute, with ecosystem partners like Baya Systems enabling scalable AI performance. Semiconductor Engineering

NoC Coherency Challenges Balloon With AI SoCs And Chiplets Chip designers are confronting data movement as the main bottleneck in AI SoCs, forcing earlier NoC planning. They balance coherent and non-coherent networks for CPUs and accelerators, increasingly relying on commercial NoC IP to manage growing system complexity. Semiconductor Engineering

Sponsor Proven Flip-Chip Flux for AI Packages WS-641 is a proven high-performance flip-chip flux for 2.5D packaging, trusted by leading OSATs to deliver consistent results & reliability in advanced CoW applications. Indium Corporation

SEMI Reports Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments Increase 13% Year-on-Year in Q1 2026 SEMI reports silicon wafer shipments rose 13.1% YoY to 3,275 MSI but fell 4.7% QoQ on seasonality. AI data center demand drives gains across logic, memory, and power, though recovery remains uneven amid weak smartphone and PC shipments. SEMI

Sponsor Proven Die-Attach Pastes and Films Low moisture absorption proven to meet AEC Grade-0 and MSL Level-1 reliability. Wafer level applicable DAF. Up to 250° wire-bonding and rapid curable for ultimate productivity. AI Technology, Inc.