March 19, 2007 – The firm Research and Markets has released a new market study that compiles European fab stats. The company found that Europe accounts for more than 280 production and research fabs active in one or more of the investigated technology fields, including ICs and MEMS. Also, Europe employs about 65,000 people related to fab manufacturing activity. IC manufacturing is the major employer, with about 51% of total European fab employment.
In “IC EUROPE – European Database of Integrated Circuit, Packaging, MEMS, R&D & Power Devices Players and Market Study,” details are given about specific facilities that are involved in ICs, MEMS, packaging, power devices, R&D, and compound semiconductors.
This analysis of European fabs has shown that there are 281 production fabs in Europe for ICs, MEMS, power devices, compound semiconductors and packaging. 34 have 2 or more activities (ICs and MEMS, ICs and power devices, etc.)
Other conclusions:
For ICs:
– Europe accounts for 12% of worldwide 8” eq. wspw.
– Germany, France, and the UK have more than 50% of the total number of IC fabs in Europe.
For power devices:
– Europe accounts for less than 30% of the world production.
– The fabs are evenly distributed through Europe. UK has the highest number of fabs (6 out of 31 fabs in total).
For MEMS:
– Europe accounts for 16% of worldwide sales.
– Germany has the highest number of MEMS fabs (25 out of 67 fabs in total).
For packaging:
– There are 50 fabs in Europe.
– There is no large OSAT player in Europe (most of them are in Asia).
For compound semiconductors:
– The activity is mainly localized in Western Europe and Israel (29 fabs in total).
For R&D:
– There are 27 large R&D public institutes.
– Europe has three world-class semiconductor R&D centers of semiconductor excellence: IMEC, Letiand, and Fraunhofer.
-There are seven 12″ wafer fabs in Europe and 11 sub-90 nm fabs (including one 45nm Intel fab in Leixlip, Ireland).
-For ICs, most of the production is done on 8″wafers. MPUs, DRAMs and Flash are processed on 8″and 12″ wafers; 60% of MPUs, DRAMs and Flash are processed on 8″. For MEMS and power devices, most of the production is done on 4″ and 6″ wafers (no 8″wafer line in production today for MEMS in Europe).
-ICs represent 74% of total wspm (231 Fabs represent a total of 2.04 million of wspm). European fabs represent a total area of 682,442 m 2(corrected data, taking into account combined activities). IC represent almost 75% of the total cleanroom surface.
-Europe employs about 65,000 people related to fab manufacturing activity. IC manufacturing is the major employer, with about 51% of total European fab employment.
For more information, visit: www.researchandmarkets.com