This issue of TAP TIMES features a cover story on Dr. William Hugle, a pioneer of the semiconductor industry and co-founder of SEMI. It includes market reports on back-end equipment, DRAM alternatives, and global semiconductor sales, plus news on AI in manufacturing, battery technology, and company developments.
TAP TIMES September 2026 is a trade magazine for the semiconductor industry. It opens with a feature article on Dr. William Hugle, a co-founder of SEMI and Siliconix, tracing his career from the early days of Silicon Valley to his role in founding the SEMICON West trade show.
The issue includes market analysis from the Yole Group on the back-end equipment market, projected to reach $9.5 billion in 2026 with a CAGR of 6.3% by 2031. Another article covers Sandia's ETCRAM memory technology, claimed to achieve 100 times higher precision than existing memory.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) reports that the global semiconductor market more than doubled in the first half of 2026 to $702 billion, a 102% year-over-year increase. A special article by Tara Buchler of JBF consulting discusses the challenges of using AI in semiconductor assembly and test.
News sections cover AI-driven record equipment billings, all-solid-state batteries entering validation, the power chip market for xEVs projected at $14.5 billion by 2031, and top NAND Flash brands rising 77% quarter-over-quarter. Other items include the appointment of Michael Robbins as SIA CEO, the launch of the SPARC program, and the satellite launch market forecast.
Additional news covers energy security through sustainable batteries, iPhone Pro 18 materials cost surge, bacteria-based living transistors at MIT, and a new path to luminescence discovered at Stanford. DRAM and NAND Flash are expected to account for 68% of spending, and a Chinese national pleaded guilty to export violations.
The issue also reports on NVIDIA's Jensen Huang named CEO of the Year, chips reaching $1.6 trillion, SK hynix breaking ground in Indiana, Micron pouring concrete at a New York fab, GB300 rack-scale solutions driving NVIDIA sales, and the optical transceiver market worth $112 billion by 2031.