IC design service provider Faraday Technology will likely land orders from Samsung Electronics for non-recurring engineering (NRE) designs for the development of next-generation NAND flash solutions, according to a recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

In the third quarter, Samsung is expected to release orders for 1Xnm-made NAND flash memory controllers to Faraday, which has also secured the vendor's 2012 orders for embedded MMC (eMMC) controller ICs used in smartphones, the report said. Orders placed by Samsung as well as growing shipments of USB 3.0 controller products will boost Faraday's revenues to a quarterly high in the third quarter of 2012, the report cited market watchers as estimating.

Previous reports quoted industry sources as saying Faraday has been shipping eMMC controllers for Samsung's smartphones since late 2011. The IC design service provider uses UMC's 65nm process technology to make the chips.

Faraday reported revenues of NT$1.79 billion for the first quarter of 2012, up 39% sequentially and hitting a record high. The firm credited the positive performance to brisk orders for eMMC controllers.