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NOR Flash oversupply a thing of the past

by on18 July 2017


Big players have quit


It is looking like the global NOR flash memory market is no longer over-supplied now that Micron Technology and Cypress Semiconductor have quit low to medium capacity.

For a while now there had been a state of oversupply due partly to significantly growing adoption of AMOLED panels and touch display driver ICs (TDDI) for mobile phones, and increasing demand from the automotive electronics and industrial controllers sectors.

NOR flash used to be big because of their use in feature phones, but market demand disappeared as such phones died out and lower-capacity NAND flash memories replaced them.

Semiconductor wafer fabs were not happy to take production orders for NOR flash memories because the margins were too thin.

However NOR flash is returning because AMOLED screens need NOR flash to supplement the brightness and electric current. Full HD models demand the installation of 8Mb NOR flash, and QHD models need 16Mb NOR flash.

NOR flash is also increasingly applied to automotive electronics and industrial control devices.

Market statistics indicate that the global sales of NOR flash products will experience a CAGR of 15 percent in the next few years to reach US$4.7 billion by 2020.

As you might expect there is suddenly a tight supply and NOR flash prices are increasing. Suppliers in Taiwan and China such as Winbond have expanded their monthly capacity for NOR flash.

Last modified on 18 July 2017
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