Technavio market research analysts forecast the global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market to grow at a CAGR of close to 5% during the period 2018-2022, according to their latest report.

In this report, Technavio highlights the advances in wafer size as one of the key emerging trends in the global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market. Since 2010, the semiconductor industry has seen a drastic transition in wafer size. To cut down costs by almost 20%-25%, the industry has shifted to large diameter wafers. Currently, the industry uses 300-mm wafers to manufacture ICs. As companies are investing a substantial amount in the construction and upgrading of fabs to manufacture 300-mm wafers, this trend is expected to continue during the forecast period.

However, the demand for 200-mm wafers will continue during the forecast period because semiconductor devices such as image sensors, microcontrollers, display drivers, and a few MEMS-based products like accelerometers still use 200-mm wafers for manufacturing. At the same time, the industry is planning to develop 450-mm wafer technology, which is expected to start during 2018-2019. This constant change in the wafer size will create the need for assembly and packaging services in the semiconductor industry.

In this report, Technavio analysts highlight the rising number of fabs as a key factor contributing to the growth of the global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market:

Rising number of fabs

Semiconductor fabs manufacture an array of semiconductor devices and components. These components are either designed in-house by IDMs or manufactured as per designs provided by the client to foundries. The need for silicon wafers to manufacture semiconductor components is increasing due to the rising application of these components in various emerging technologies such as IoT and AI. This will increase the need to develop more number of fabs. As the semiconductor foundry market is highly competitive, several companies are building new fabs.

According to a senior analyst at Technavio for semiconductor equipment, “The need for assembly and packaging services required for the timely manufacture of ICs is growing, due to the increasing demand for ICs in various emerging applications such as autonomous cars and robotics. Major foundries have announced various plans of constructing new fabs, which will be operational by 2019 onward.”

Global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market segmentation

This market research report segments the global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market into the following applications, including communication sector, computing and networking sector, industrial and automotive sector, and consumer electronics sector and key regions, including the Americas, APAC, and EMEA.

Of the four major applications, the communication sector held the largest market share in 2017, accounting for nearly 40% of the market. The market share for this application is expected to increase nearly 2% by 2022. The fastest growing application is industrial and automotive sector, which will account for nearly 24% of the total market share by 2022.

APAC was the leading region for the global semiconductor assembly and packaging services market in 2017, accounting for a market share of nearly 76%. By 2022, APAC is expected to continue dominating the market.