SEMI reports that the worldwide semiconductor photomask market was $3.1 billion in 2013 and is forecasted to reach $3.3 billion in 2015. After contracting 3 percent in 2012 the photomask market increased 1 percent in 2013. The mask market is expected to grow 3 percent sequentially over the next two years. Key drivers in this market continue to be advanced technology feature sizes (less than 45 nm) and increased manufacturing in Asia-Pacific. Taiwan remains the largest photomask regional market for the fourth year in a row and is expected to be the largest market for the duration of the forecast.

Revenues of $3.1 billion place photomasks at 14 percent of the total wafer fabrication materials market, behind silicon and semiconductor gases. By comparison, photomasks represented 18 percent of the total wafer fabrication materials market in 2003. Another trend highlighted in the report is the emerging importance of captive mask shops. Captive mask shops, aided by intense capital expenditures in 2011 and 2012 and a weakening Yen in 2013, gained market share at merchant suppliers’ expense, with captive mask suppliers accounting for 49 percent of the total photomask market last year, up from 42 percent in 2012. Captive mask shops represented 31 percent of the photomask market in 2003.

A recent SEMI published report, Photomask Characterization Summary, provides details on the 2013 Photomask Market for seven regions of world including North America, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, China, and Rest of World. The report also includes data for each of these regions from 2006 to 2015 and summarizes lithography developments over the past year.  For more information on SEMI, visit www.semi.org.