World News
12/01/2005
BUSINESS TRENDS
Dataquest ups 2006 projections on stronger demand for backend and litho tools
Armed with new data and hedged optimism, Gartner Dataquest has updated its July forecast for capital spending for the next several years, and is now projecting some improvement in nearly every equipment sector through 2007. “The underlying demand structure is there to support a slightly better investment level,” according to Klaus Rinnen, managing VP for semiconductor manufacturing.
The firm now sees 2006 capital equipment sales increasing by 2.2% next year, to $33.96 billion, instead of the 1.7% decline it projected in July. Sales of wafer fab equipment will still decline, although now only by 4.1%, not the 8.2% originally forecast. But sales of packaging and assembly tools should jump 22.1%, to $6.10 billion, much better than the 15.2% previously projected, and demand for test equipment will rise 25%.
 Capital equipment spending. (Source: Gartner Dataquest) |
The extra $1.42 billion in equipment spending now expected next year will go primarily to backend tool suppliers, driven by good strength in probers, a 38% jump in flip-chip packaging equipment, and a 26% increase in wafer-level packaging tools, Rinnen said. In the wafer fab area, the best prospects are for lithography, electrochemical deposition, and some process control technologies. - James Montgomery, News Editor
USA
Rice U. professor Richard Smalley, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering the fullerene (or “buckyball”), a spherical 60-carbon-atom molecule, passed away on Oct. 28 after a battle with leukemia. In 2000, Smalley pushed for the US National Nanotechnology Initiative, and had recently become an outspoken advocate for alternative-energy R&D, saying, “It may be a greater challenge for us than the Cold War...to make it possible for 10 billion people to live the lifestyle you are used to in a way that doesn’t cause unacceptable impacts on the environment.”
ASIAFOCUS
China
China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) aims to achieve $100 million per year in business with Israeli firms by the end of the decade, according to company president and CEO Richard Chang, reported Globes. SMIC already manufactures several million dollars’ worth of equipment for Israeli use, including ADSL, consumer electronics, and telecom equipment, Chang noted, but suggested the partnership could expand with R&D in Israel and manufacturing in China.
Japan
Ebara Corp. has licensed IMEC’s Rotagoni drying technique, used for water mark-free drying in single-wafer wet-cleaning applications, for use with equipment produced by its precision machinery division. The process involves dispensing ultrapure water and a tensio-active vapor onto the surface of a rotating wafer, creating a surface-tension gradient effect that physically removes rising liquid, instead of removal by evaporation.
South Korea
Samsung Electronics may face scrutiny from South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for an alleged sweetheart deal to supply NAND flash memory to Apple Computer for its iPod nano, according to the Korea Times, citing comments from FTC chairman Kang Chul-kyu during a radio program. The Korea Portable Audio Consortium, an umbrella group representing local manufacturers of MP3 players, and local parliamentary debaters claim Samsung sold memory chips to Apple at a 10%-50% discount from market prices.
EUROFOCUS
Praxair Inc., Danbury, CT, said that its electronics division has offered to purchase Alcan Inc.’s high-purity (5N) aluminum refining and casting operation in Mercus, France, to bolster materials for use in producing sputtering targets for semiconductor manufacturing, and expand its market in flat-panel manufacturing alongside its gases business. Pending approval from Alcan’s workers councils, the asset transfer agreement is expected to be completed in 1Q06.
AMD’s 300mm Fab 36 in Dresden, Germany, officially opened for business as of Oct. 14, two years after groundbreaking began. Shipments of 90nm-based products are expected to start in 1Q06, with 65nm production beginning by the end of 2006, and complete conversion to 65nm by mid-2007. Shipments are projected to top 100 million units in 2008.