Packaging Orders For Apple’s A8 Chip Shared by Three Companies [Digitimes]

Packaging orders of Apple’s next-generation A8 processor will be shared by semiconductor companies Amkor Technology and STATS ChipPAC, who will be responsible for delivering 40% of orders, while the remaining 20% will be covered by ASE (Advanced Semiconductor Engineering), reports Digitimes.

Since Apple inked a deal with TSMC last year, it is strongly believed that the latter will handle foundry orders for the A8 chip, and will start manufacturing using 20 nm process technology.

Apple’s A8 chip will be a package-on-package (PoP) SoC solution comprising processors and mobile DRAM in a single package, said the sources.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is believed to have landed foundry orders for Apple’s next-generation A8 chip, has also secured wafer bumping orders for the processor as part of its turnkey solution, the sources indicated.

As earlier reports have pointed out, TSMC is expected to provide the A8, A9 and A9X chips for Apple’s iDevices. Samsung, however, could remain Apple’s supplier, even with the long-rumoured TSMC deal on, as sources say it grabbed a smaller percentage of application processor orders from the iPhone maker.

Meanwhile, TSMC – unsurprisingly – is said to be providing Apple with Touch ID sensors for the next-generation iPhone: AuthenTec turned to TSMC to manufacture its fingerprint sensors, so it was expected that Apple would continue the business relationship with the supplier.