Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Adam Hwang

 

Due higher than expected orders for its MT6573 3.75G smartphone chip, MediaTek has asked for additional foundry capacity equivalent to several thousands of wafers from United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), according to industry sources.

MT6573 has been adopted by Lenovo and other China-based vendors because its FOB price of US$60-70 is much lower than US$100-120 quoted by MediaTek's competitors and functional performance is better, the sources said. Based on orders received, MediaTek will ship more than one million MT6573 chips in September 2011, with monthly shipments to increase to 2-3 million chips in November and December, the sources indicated.

Due to the additional orders for foundry services, UMC has offered a 10% discount for all orders from MediaTek, the sources indicated. Similarly, MediaTek has asked Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and Siliconware Precision Industries to offer a 10% discount on IC packaging and testing services for the fourth quarter in exchange for additional orders, the sources said.