April 10, 2012 — Barclays Capital compiled its 2011 analysis of semiconductor wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending, with a look at the top players and underlying trends by process step. Here, Barclays’ CJ Muse considers the rebound in process control due to weak yields at smaller chip nodes.
Process control intensity (% of total WFE spending) rebounded in 2011, hitting a new near-term high of 14%. While 2010 saw semiconductor manufacturing yield improvements, 2011 brought poor yields at the leading-edge nodes and increasing technology buys as foundries and memory makers began manufacturing next-generation nodes. Record quantities of process control and yield management tools were purchased in 2011 to combat yield issues from larger die and increased architectural, manufacturing, and material complexities.
For 2012, expect process control spending to remain roughly flat as capacity buys begin to take up a bigger part of the chip maker’s budget. In the long term, the process control market will remain steady, as yield will always be a key issue to deal with for chip manufacturers.
To learn more about the top players in metrology and process control, read Wafer fab equipment leaders in 2011 and expectations for 2012
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