IC packagers Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), and substrate makers Unimicron Technology and Kinsus Interconnect Technology are all getting ready for the launch of MediaTek's MT6575 single-chip solution, according to industry sources.

The upcoming MT6575 will run at 1GHz - an upgrade from 650MHz that the predecessor MT6573 has - targeting growing demand for low-cost smartphones. MediaTek adopts the advanced 40nm process for its MT6575 chip line, and uses wire bonding instead of flip-chip packaging in the products for cost reasons, the sources indicated.

MediaTek has delivered samples of the new MT6575 solution for design-in to about 40 companies since December, the sources said. It expects to start shipping in volume to customers between January and February 2012, the sources noted.

Shipments of MediaTek's MT6575 solution are likely to top 1.5 million units in January, and further expand to three million in February, the sources estimated. The anticipated boost in shipments will buoy sales at its backend suppliers in the first quarter of 2012, the sources said.

ASE remarked at its most recent investors meeting that shipments would decrease 3-4% sequentially in the last quarter of 2011. Looking forward, fewer working days in January might affect the company's sales performance, said ASE, without elaborating further.

Kinsus has estimated flat sequential growth in fourth-quarter sales. Sales for the first quarter of 2012 would slide as a result of seasonal factors, the company said.