IC design house MediaTek, in view of increasing orders for its handset SoC solutions from China, India and other emerging markets, has released additional orders to United Microelectronics (UMC) for foundry services equivalent to 50,000 8-inch wafers, according to industry sources.
The additional orders for MediaTek's 2.5G single-chip solutions, particularly the MT6252 targeted at multimedia-rich feature phones, will be fulfilled during the fourth quarter of 2011, said the sources.
Major backend service providers for MediaTek, including Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), Sigurd Microelectronics and King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), are also pinpointed by the sources as beneficiaries of more orders placed by the fabless handset-IC specialist.
Buoyed by rising orders and capacity support, MediaTek is expected to be among the few IC design firms to enjoy over 10% revenue growth sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the sources.
Previous reports cited industry sources as saying that MediaTek had negotiated with UMC and its backed service partners for a 10% discount and in return, the fabless firm would release additional orders to the companies that agreed the new quotes. The success of the talks would allow MediaTek to launch some price-cutting strategy starting October, and further strengthen its market share.