To sustain the competition in the market, semiconductor manufacturers are continuously introducing innovative products, reducing manufacturing costs, and improving product efficiency. For instance, they have introduced chips that are available in smaller sizes; the sizes of these chips have reduced from 45nm to 22nm. They have also introduced chips with high dielectric constant materials and fin-fet or tri-gate transistors. In addition, DRAM memory manufacturers are currently employing 3x node production technology and 2x node production technology for the production of DRAMs. As these innovations require highly complicated wafer-level packaging equipment, the increase in the number of innovations by semiconductor manufacturers is likely to foster their demand in the market.
Analysts at ReportsNReports.com forecast the global wafer-level packaging equipment market to grow at a CAGR of 2.9 percent over the period 2013-2018. According to the report, the most important driver is the increasing adoption of mobile devices. Over the past decade there has been an unprecedented growth in the adoption of mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, notebook PCs, tablets, ultrabooks, and PDAs. This has led to a consequential rise in the demand for wafer-level packaging equipment, as it is vital for the functioning of mobile devices.
The Global Wafer-level Packaging Equipment Market 2014-2018 has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the APAC region, the Americas, and the EMEA region; it also covers the Global Wafer-level Packaging Equipment market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
The report states that one of the key challenges in this market is the cyclical nature of the Semiconductor industry, which leads to fluctuations in the demand for wafer-level packaging equipment. Moreover, in some cases, the production of such equipment tends to exceed their demand, leading to a large demand-supply gap.
The recognizes the following companies as the key players in Global Wafer-level Packaging Equipment Market: Applied Materials Inc., Disco Corp., EV Group, Tokyo Electron Ltd., and Tokyo Seimitsu Co. Ltd.
Other vendors mentioned in the report are Rudolph Technologies Inc., SEMES Co. Ltd., Suss Microtec AG, Ultratech Inc., and ULVAC.
The short replacement cycle of portable electronic devices is a major trend witnessed in the Global Wafer-level Packaging Inspection Systems market. In the current scenario, portable electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming obsolete within a short period of time. The main reason for this is the quick succession of next-version models, which results in consumers replacing older versions of their devices with newer ones. At the present time, the duration of the replacement cycle period is 8-12 months, but it used to be much longer. Therefore, this reduction in the product replacement cycle is fostering the demand for semiconductor wafers for their use in newly launched devices.
Analysts forecast the Global Wafer Level Packaging Inspection Systems market to grow at a CAGR of 1.54 percent over the period 2013-2018. According to the report, the growth of the Global Wafer-level Packaging Inspection Systems market is driven by several factors, the most important of which is the rising demand for smartphones and tablets. One of the major reasons for the growing demand for these devices is their increasing adoption in emerging markets. This subsequently creates more demand for semiconductor wafers, thus driving the growth of the Global Wafer-level Packaging Inspection Systems market.