BUSINESS TRENDS
09/01/2007
A-P growth at expense of Japan and US, but not Europe
A report from IC Insights Inc. indicates the continued shift of semiconductor production to the Asia-Pacific region is pulling marketshare away from the Japanese and Americas regions.
IC companies based in the Americas accounted for nearly half of worldwide IC sales in 2006, about the same as they did two decades ago (though seen slightly declining), while Japan’s marketshare has significantly eroded since peaking in 1988. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific IC supplier segment has surged, from just 5% of chip sales in 1991 to 26% in 2006, and to a projected 32% by 2011.
 The Asia-Pacific region appears perennially strong; all regions are projected to see >10% growth in 2008. (Source: SIA) |
European chipmakers have been consistently around 8%-11% share for more than two decades, though, likely due to their strength in certain areas (e.g., analog, MCU, and application-specific logic) “that are not easily swayed to switch over to a foreign supplier,” the firm notes. Still, European electronic systems sales continue to represent a smaller share of total world production, and eventually that will mean less share for the regional semiconductor suppliers.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
SEMI’s midyear forecast for 2007 capital equipment revenue predicts sharply reduced growth for the next three years-1.1%, 6.5%, and 4.4% for 2007, 2008, and 2009, respectively, vs. a prior forecast of 3.7%, 13.3%, and 5.4%.
InterCrossIP Management LLC says it has signed exclusive worldwide licensing agreements with Scottish specialty chemical manufacturer Ceimig Ltd. and Simon Fraser U. in Burnaby, British Columbia, to commercialize thin-film “photochemical metal organic deposition” technology.
USA
Cadence Design Systems has acquired DFM firm Invarium, a developer of lithography modeling and pattern-synthesis technology.
KLA-Tencor has quietly acquired FabSolve LLC, a US firm with “design-based metrology” software that can be used for in-line metrology in semiconductor manufacturing.
IBM and SUSS MicroTec are ramping pilot production of a controlled collapse chip connection new process (C4NP) line at East Fishkill, NY, claiming 99.7% yields.
SEMATECH’s Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) and Vesta Technology say they have developed a nondamaging process that allows deposition of plasma-enhanced TiN films at 30% lower temperatures than conventional methods, and a “super high-k” film with nearly twice the dielectric constant of HfO2- and ZrO2-based films.
ASIAFOCUS
Silterra Malaysia is undertaking a three-stage plan to pump up capacity across a range of process technologies (0.18µm-65nm), including plans to build a new $1.5-$2.0 billion 300mm wafer fab capable of 20k-25k wafers/month.
Sony plans to invest ¥60 billion (US ~$489 million) over three years at the Kumamoto Technology Center of subsidiary Sony Semiconductor Kyushu, as part of a shift in strategic focus from CCD image sensors to CMOS versions, according to the Nikkei Business Daily.
ProMOS Technologies reportedly has signed a US ~$630 million loan with a group of 13 banks to help support accelerated expansion of its third 300mm factory in Taiwan.
Tower Semiconductor has obtained commitments for $100 million in funding to purchase tools for a capacity expansion at its Fab 2 200mm site, primarily for ≤0.13-micron process technologies.
UMC and SEMATECH’s ATDF are extending their yearlong collaboration to evaluate manufacturability and commercialization potential for “emerging technology products.”
EUROFOCUS
Qimonda AG says it is sampling ultralow-power 512Mbit DRAM devices for mobile applications, using a 75nm low-power trench technology, that consume just 20% the power of equivalent-density standard DRAMs.
After an initially optimistic outlook, SOI wafer supplier Soitec now says fiscal 1H08 sales “will be below the previous year by around 15%” and FY08 sales may be lower prior year as well (€372.0 million).