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Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $386 billion in 2017, an increase of 12.3 percent from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Favorable market conditions that gained momentum in the second half of 2016, particularly for commodity memory, have accelerated and raised the outlook for the market in 2017 and 2018. However, the memory market is fickle, and additional capacity in both DRAM and NAND flash is expected to result in a correction in 2019.

“While price increases for both DRAM and NAND flash memory are raising the outlook for the overall semiconductor market, it will also put pressure on margins for system vendors of smartphones, PCs and servers,” said Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner. “Component shortages, a rising bill of materials, and the prospect of having to counter by raising average selling prices (ASPs) will create a volatile market in 2017 and 2018.”

PC DRAM pricing has doubled since the middle of 2016. A 4GB module that cost $12.50 has jumped to just under $25 today. NAND flash ASPs increased sequentially in the second half of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. Pricing for both DRAM and NAND is expected to peak in the second quarter of 2017, but relief is not expected until later in the year as content increases in key applications, such as smartphones, have vendors scrambling for supply.

“With memory vendors expanding their margins though 2017, the temptation will be to add new capacity,” said Mr. Erensen. “We also expect to see China make a concerted effort to join the memory industry, setting the market up for a downturn in 2019.”

Unit production estimates for premium smartphones, graphics cards, video game consoles and automotive applications have improved and contributed to the stronger outlook in 2017. In addition, electronic equipment with heavy exposure to DRAM and NAND flash saw semiconductor revenue estimates increase. This includes PCs, ultramobiles, servers and solid-state drives.

“The outlook for emerging opportunities for semiconductors in the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics remains choppy with these markets still in the early stages of development and too small to have a significant impact on overall semiconductor revenue growth in 2017,” said Mr. Erensen.

“In 2016, the MOSFET market recovered, after a minor downturn in 2015,” announced Yole Développement (Yole) in its latest power electronics report, Power MOSFET: Market & Technology Trends. With stable growth, mainly in automotive and industrial sales in 2016 the overall silicon power MOSFET market size surpassed 2014’s performance.

“We expect the market to grow steadily thanks to increasing demand for efficient electronics, in which power MOSFETs play a vital role”, explains Zhen Zong, Technology & Market Analyst, Power Electronics at Yole. Overall market revenue neared US$6.2 billion. From 2016 to 2022 Yole estimates a 3.4% CAGR.

mosfet market

Under this dynamic ecosystem, Yole reinforces its market positioning within the power electronics industry. The “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company is covering step by step the whole power electronics supply chain: from substrates with innovative WBG materials including GaN , SiC , Bulk GaN… to devices (IGBT, MOSFET, gate drivers IC …), modules and systems. In parallel, the company also enlarges its core expertise towards batteries and energy management sector. Yole’s strategy is clearly to propose a deep understanding of the overall power electronics industry by taking into account technical innovations such as WBG technologies, analyze the impact on the supply chain and identify business opportunities.

Yole’s power electronics team attends PCIM Europe with a booth and its annual powerful Power Electronics Market Briefing. During this briefing, the consulting company is inviting industrial leaders to speak and proposes detailed presentations focused on the power semiconductor industry.

Power MOSFET report is one of the key 2017 reports proposed by Yole’s team. It provides an overview of the entire market, with a comprehensive analysis of the players in each market segment with their product range and technologies.

“Under this new report, our aim is to propose our vision of the power electronics industry, from an end-users perspective,” explained Dr Pierric Gueguen, Business Unit Manager at Yole. “Our analysis highlights the corresponding impact on MOSFET technologies and the introduction of WBG technologies which represent only less than 2% of the overall power electronics market today but are showing a real growth potential in a near future.”

In 2016, 25 million electrified vehicles were sold. Power MOSFET sales in automotive applications have surpassed computing and data storage, now representing more than 20% of the total market. As vehicle numbers increase worldwide and people adopt electrified vehicles, this sector’s rapid growth will continue at 5.1% CAGR between 2016 and 2022.

Power MOSFETs are widely used in various automotive applications involving braking systems, engine management, power steering and other small motor control circuits, in which a low conduction loss and high commutation speed device is very much appreciated. Silicon power MOSFETs are also becoming increasingly popular in EV/HEV converters, depending on their electrification level. For battery chargers MOSFETs can handle roughly 3-6 kW, which is perfect for small size plug-in EVs or full EVs. They are also used for 48V DC/DC converters and other micro inverters in the start/stop function module. With the trend of EV/HEV adoption led by Tesla, Yole’s analysts believe this market segment will become increasingly important in the next 5-10 years.

Computing and storage market segment which includes desktops, laptops, as well as different kinds of servers in the datacenters comes to the second largest market. With the declining sales number of personal PCs this market segment is slowing down and has been surpassed by automotive part in 2016. However with the increasing demand for servers and datacenters, the whole segment is still having a steady increase, posting a 2.8% CAGR for the 2016-2022 period.

Power electronics market future may depend on governmental decisions concerning electrified vehicles as well as renewable energies applications. It includes CO2 reduction targets, energy efficiency increases… Both markets could be the most important in 2030, announces Yole in its MOSFET report. On the other hand, other large volume applications may come, such as 5G, drones or robots. All those applications, demanding power supply, will clearly pull the MOSFET market.

Today it is not possible to get a comprehensive understanding of the MOSFETs market without taking into account the impact of the innovative WBG technologies including SiC and GaN.
Silicon power MOSFETs have been developing for 20 years. Ceaseless improvement and technology innovations from planar to trench structure and today’s super junction, have reduced silicon MOSFET device sizes and costs dramatically. They have been massively used in various application segments – but today, device performance has reached silicon’s theoretical limit.
Chasing better performance and even smaller devices size, today the power electronics industry is at the beginning of SiC and GaN’s adoption. Ever more new companies are promoting SiC and GaN solutions and new designs. At Yole, analysts believe this will be the next technology evolution stage. However, this does not necessarily mean doom for silicon power MOSFETs.

“Looking back at the development of bipolar transistors and power MOSFETs in the past 20 years in different applications, we expect that there will still be a very solid market share reserved for silicon power MOSFETs”, analyzes Zhen Zong from Yole. With increasing need in the end applications, the overall market size for MOSFETs will not necessarily decline.

Over the next 5-10 years, Yole envisions some GaN devices coming out and being implemented for high frequency switch applications in the low-to-mid voltage 100-200V range, but remaining a small portion. Both SiC and GaN devices will penetrate the high frequency market around 600V, but will probably only be popular in particular markets, like EV on-board chargers and data center power supply units. The majority of the market will still use silicon power MOSFETs, thanks to their proven reliability and good cost performance ratio.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $30.4 billion for the month of February 2017, an increase of 16.5 percent compared to the February 2016 total of $26.1 billion. Global sales in February were 0.8 percent lower than the January 2017 total of $30.6 billion, exceeding normal seasonal market performance. February marked the global market’s largest year-to-year growth since October 2010. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“The global semiconductor industry has posted strong sales early in 2017, with memory products like DRAM and NAND flash leading the way,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Year-to-year sales increased by double digits across most regional markets, with the China and Americas markets showing particularly strong growth. Global market trends are favorable for continuing sales growth in the months ahead.”

Year-to-year sales increased across all regions: China (25.0 percent), the Americas (19.1 percent), Japan (11.9 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (11.2 percent), and Europe (5.9 percent). Month-to-month sales increased modestly in Asia Pacific/All Other (0.5 percent) but decreased slightly across all others: Europe (-0.6 percent), Japan (-0.9 percent), China (-1.0 percent), and the Americas (-2.3 percent).

Neuffer also noted the recent growth of foreign semiconductor markets is a reminder of the importance of expanding U.S. semiconductor companies’ access to global markets, which is one of SIA’s policy priorities for 2017. The U.S. industry accounts for nearly half of the world’s total semiconductor sales, and more than 80 percent of U.S. semiconductor company sales are to overseas markets, helping make semiconductors one of America’s top exports.

February 2017

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.13

5.99

-2.3%

Europe

2.84

2.82

-0.6%

Japan

2.79

2.77

-0.9%

China

10.15

10.05

-1.0%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.72

8.76

0.5%

Total

30.64

30.39

-0.8%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.03

5.99

19.1%

Europe

2.66

2.82

5.9%

Japan

2.47

2.77

11.9%

China

8.04

10.05

25.0%

Asia Pacific/All Other

7.88

8.76

11.2%

Total

26.08

30.39

16.5%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Sept/Oct/Nov

Dec/Jan/Feb

% Change

Americas

6.25

5.99

-4.2%

Europe

2.88

2.82

-2.3%

Japan

2.90

2.77

-4.6%

China

10.04

10.05

0.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.94

8.76

-2.0%

Total

31.02

30.39

-2.0%

 

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, this week announced the next milestone phase in the development of the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS)—an IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Industry Connections (IC) Program sponsored by the IEEE Rebooting Computing (IEEE RC) Initiative—with the launch of a series of nine white papers that reinforce the initiative’s core mission and vision for the future of the computing industry. The white papers also identify industry challenges and solutions that guide and support future roadmaps created by IRDS.

IEEE is taking a lead role in building a comprehensive, end-to-end view of the computing ecosystem, including devices, components, systems, architecture, and software. In May 2016, IEEE announced the formation of the IRDS under the sponsorship of IEEE RC. The historical integration of IEEE RC and the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) 2.0 addresses mapping the ecosystem of the new reborn electronics industry. The new beginning of the evolved roadmap—with the migration from ITRS to IRDS—is proceeding seamlessly as all the reports produced by the ITRS 2.0 represent the starting point of IRDS.

While engaging other segments of IEEE in complementary activities to assure alignment and consensus across a range of stakeholders, the IRDS team is developing a 15-year roadmap with a vision to identify key trends related to devices, systems, and other related technologies.

“Representing the foundational development stage in IRDS is the publishing of nine white papers that outline the vital and technical components required to create a roadmap,” said Paolo A. Gargini, IEEE Fellow and Chairman of IRDS. “As a team, we are laying the foundation to identify challenges and recommendations on possible solutions to the industry’s current limitations defined by Moore’s Law. With the launch of the nine white papers on our new website, the IRDS roadmap sets the path for the industry benefiting from all fresh levels of processing power, energy efficiency, and technologies yet to be discovered.”

“The IRDS has taken a significant step in creating the industry roadmap by publishing nine technical white papers,” said IEEE Fellow Elie Track, 2011-2014 President, IEEE Council on Superconductivity; Co-chair, IEEE RC; and CEO of nVizix. “Through the public availability of these white papers, we’re inviting computing professionals to participate in creating an innovative ecosystem that will set a new direction for the greater good of the industry. Today, I open an invitation to get involved with IEEE RC and the IRDS.”

The series of white papers delivers the starting framework of the IRDS roadmap—and through the sponsorship of IEEE RC—will inform the various roadmap teams in the broader task of mapping the devices’ and systems’ ecosystem:

“IEEE is the perfect place to foster the IRDS roadmap and fulfill what the computing industry has been searching for over the past decades,” said IEEE Fellow Thomas M. Conte, 2015 President, IEEE Computer Society; Co-chair, IEEE RC; and Professor, Schools of Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. “In essence, we’re creating a new Moore’s Law. And we have so many next-generation computing solutions that could easily help us reach uncharted performance heights, including cryogenic computing, reversible computing, quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, superconducting computing, and others. And that’s why the IEEE RC Initiative exists: creating and maintaining a forum for the experts who will usher the industry beyond the Moore’s Law we know today.”

The IRDS leadership team hosted a winter workshop and kick-off meeting at the Georgia Institute of Technology on 1-2 December 2016. Key discoveries from the workshop included the international focus teams’ plans and focus topics for the 2017 roadmap, top-level needs and challenges, and linkages among the teams. Additionally, the IRDS leadership invited presentations from the European and Japanese roadmap initiatives. This resulted in the 2017 IRDS global membership expanding to include team members from the “NanoElectronics Roadmap for Europe: Identification and Dissemination” (NEREID) sponsored by the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA), and the “Systems and Design Roadmap of Japan” (SDRJ) sponsored by the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP).

The IRDS team and its supporters will convene 1-3 April 2017 in Monterey, California, for the Spring IRDS Workshop, which is part of the 2017 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS). The team will meet again for the Fall IRDS Conference—in partnership with the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing (ICRC)—scheduled for 6-7 November 2017 in Washington, D.C. More information on both events can be found here: http://irds.ieee.org/events.

IEEE RC is a program of IEEE Future Directions, designed to develop and share educational tools, events, and content for emerging technologies.

IEEE-SA’s IC Program helps incubate new standards and related products and services, by facilitating collaboration among organizations and individuals as they hone and refine their thinking on rapidly changing technologies.

As demand for the flexible AMOLED display continues to sharply increase, its revenues are expected to reach $3.2 billion in the third quarter of 2017, exceeding that of rigid AMOLED panels at $3.0 billion, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

With many smartphone brands planning to apply flexible AMOLED displays to their high-end product lines, revenues for flexible AMOLED panels are expected to grow over 150 percent compared to 2016. On the other hand, rigid AMOLED panels, now mainly used for mid-range smartphones, are forecast to decline 2 percent in revenues from 2016.

“Smartphone brands believe using flexible AMOLED panels in their latest high-end products will differentiate themselves from competitors still using rigid AMOLED displays or liquid crystal displays,” said Jerry Kang, principal analyst of display research at IHS Markit.

“Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have launched some of their flagship smartphones with flexible AMOLED displays since 2013, but have yet to become mainstream products given there was limited panel supply,” Kang said. “Since 2016, however, many more panel makers have focused their efforts on increasing their supply capacity for flexible AMOLED displays. They have also tried to optimize the manufacturing process and design better structure of these panels, making flexible AMOLED display a favored choice for smartphones makers.”

amoled shipments

According to AMOLED & Flexible Display Intelligence Service by IHS Markit, most smartphone makers are aiming to apply flexible AMOLED displays to their products in 2017, but some of them would still find it difficult due to the higher price tag.

“Currently, the cost to make flexible AMOLED panels is much higher than that of rigid AMOLED, but it is possible that costs will fall below that of rigid panels in the future as manufacturing yield rates improve,” Kang said.

At the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium in Munich, SEMI announced recipients of the European SEMI Award for 2016: Rolf Aschenbrenner, deputy director of the Fraunhofer IZM; Eric Beyne, fellow and program director of 3D System Integration at imec; and Gilles Poupon, CEA fellow on advanced packaging and 3D integration at CEA-Leti. Since 1989, the European SEMI Award has been presented for significant contributions to the European semiconductor and related industries.  The three winners were nominated and selected by peers within the international semiconductor community in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of 3D Integration.

“While the industry recognizes that SEMI Members imec, Fraunhofer and CEA-Leti are leaders in packaging technologies, the contributions of Rolf Aschenbrenner, Eric Beyne and Gilles Poupon and their teams are groundbreaking and advanced the semiconductor industry,” says SEMI Europe president Laith Altimime.

Rolf Aschenbrenner received a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering in 1986 and an M.Sc. in physics in 1991 from the University of Giessen. In 1994, he joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Micro-integration in Berlin (IZM), where he is presently head of the department for chip interconnection technologies, and deputy director of the institute. Rolf Aschenbrenner’s research work spans from manufacturing process fundamentals to applied manufacturing problems. He has made substantial research contributions in thin and flexible electronic assemblies, end the development and analysis of innovative process technologies for all aspects of system level packaging. He served on various committees, and in 2013 he received the IEEE CPMT David Feldman Award.

Eric Beyne obtained a degree in electrical engineering in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Applied Science in 1990, both from the Catholic University Leuven. Since 1986, he has been employed at imec, where he works on advanced packaging and interconnect technologies. Currently, he is imec Fellow and programme director of imec’s 3D-integration programme. For more than ten years, Eric Beyne has been a pioneer in 3D system integration. He is a strong believer in the building of ecosystems in packaging and 3D, and has catalysed cooperation between IC-makers, designers, and Materials and equipment makers.

Gilles Poupon was educated at the University of Grenoble and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, where he received an M.Sc. in electrochemistry in 1985. He joined CEA-Leti in Grenoble in 1987. He became manager of the High Density Interconnect and Packaging Laboratory at Leti, where he was involved in the development of flip-chip technology, MEMS packaging and 3D-integration. Currently, he is programme manager on Advanced Packaging at CEA-Leti. Poupon is also a scientific advisor of the Eureka Initiative for Packaging and Integration of Microdevices and Smart Systems, and a member of various other committees involved in packaging and 3-D integration.

The European SEMI Award was established almost three decades ago to recognize individuals and teams who have made a significant contribution to the European semiconductor and related industries. Prior award recipients hailed from these companies: EV Group, Infineon, Semilab, Deutsche Solar, STMicroelectronics, imec, Fraunhofer Institute, and more.

The ConFab – an exclusive conference and networking event for semiconductor manufacturing and design executives from leading device makers, OEMs, OSATs, fabs, suppliers and fabless/design companies – announces Keynotes in the May 14-17 event being held at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

The ConFab 2017 is excited to welcome these distinguished Keynote speakers: Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor; Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory, as well as the Laboratory for Intelligent and Safe Automobiles at the University of California San Diego; Dr. Alissa Fitzgerald, Founder and Managing Member of A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, and Bill McClean, President of IC Insights.

Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor

Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The five hottest areas for semiconductor growth in the coming years are the Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, 5G, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), and artificial intelligence (AI). The ConFab 2017 program will take a close look at the challenges of these applications in the semiconductor industry, not just on the microprocessor and memory side, but on the MEMS, sensor, display, power and analog side. Many new innovations in packaging will also addressed,” said Pete Singer, Conference Chair of The ConFab and Editor-in-Chief of Solid State Technology.

In addition to our great Keynotes, the 2017 Agenda brings together sessions on heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging, starting with a talk from Islam Salama, Director with Intel, followed by Bill Chen, ASE Fellow, and Jan Vardaman, President of TechSearch. Siemens will speak on Smart Manufacturing, which will encompass the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). A panel discussion on Advanced Packaging will be moderated by Vinayak Pandey, Vice President of STATS ChipPAC with additional sessions that will focus on MEMS and sensors. Speakers include Kevin Shaw, CTO and Founder of Algorithmic Intuition and J.C. Eloy, President and CEO of Yole Développement. Another panel will look into the coming opportunities and changes in a range of diverse markets, including MEMS and Sensors, power electronics, biomedical, LEDs, displays and more. Those panelists include Valerie Marty of Connected Micro, Laura Rothman Mauer of Veeco, David Butler of SPTS and Mike Rosa of Applied Materials. Jason Marsh of NextFlex will provide an update on flexible electronics on Wednesday.

The ConFab is a high-level conference for decision-makers and influencers to connect, innovate and collaborate in multiple sessions, one-on-one private business meetings, and other networking activities. For more information, visit www.theconfab.com.

About The ConFab

The ConFab is the premier semiconductor manufacturing conference and networking event bringing over 200 notable industry leaders together. The ConFab is owned and produced by Extension Media and hosted by Pete Singer, Solid State Technology’s Editor-in-Chief, and Conference Chair. To inquire about participating – if you represent an equipment, material or service supplier, contact Kerry Hoffman, Director of Sales, at [email protected]. To inquire about attending, contact Sally Bixby, Sr. Events Director at [email protected]

About Extension Media

Extension Media is a privately held company operating more than 50 B2B magazines, engineers’ guides, newsletters, websites and conferences that focus on high-tech industry platforms and emerging technologies such as: chip design, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, embedded systems, software, architectures and industry standards. Extension Media also produces industry leading events including The ConFab, the Internet of Things Developers Conference (IoT DevCon 2017) and the new Machine Learning Developers Conference (ML DevCon 2017), and publishes Embedded Systems Engineering, EECatalog.com, Embedded Intel® Solutions, EmbeddedIntel.com, Chip Design, ChipDesignMag.com, Solid State Technology and Solid-State.com.

Today, SEMI announced updates to its World Fab Forecast report, revealing that fab equipment spending is expected to reach an industry all-time record − more than US$46 billion in 2017.  The record is expected to be broken again in 2018, nearing the $50 billion mark. These record-busting years are part of three consecutive years of growth (2016, 2017 and 2018), which has not occurred since the mid-1990s. The report has been the industry’s most trusted data source for 24 years, observing and analyzing spending, capacity, and technology changes for all front-end facilities worldwide. See Figure 1.

fab equipment spending

Figure 1: Fab Equipment Spending (Front End Facilities)

SEMI‘s World Fab Forecast report (end of February 2017) provides updates to 282 facilities and lines equipping in 2017, 11 of which are expected to spend over $1 billion each in 2017. In 2018, SEMI’s data reflect 270 fabs to equip, with 12 facilities spending over $1 billion each.  The spending is mainly directed towards memory (3D NAND and DRAM), Foundry and MPU.  Other strong product segments are Discretes (with LED and Power), Logic, MEMS (with MEMS/RF), and Analog/Mixed Signal.

SEMI (www.semi.org) forecasts that China will be third for regional spending in 2017, although China’s annual growth is minimal in 2017 (about 1 percent), as many of the new fab projects are in the construction phase.  China is busy constructing 14 new fabs in 2017 and these new fabs will be equipping in 2018. China’s annual spending growth rate in 2018 will be over 55 percent (more than $10 billion), and ranking in second place for worldwide spending in 2018.  In total for 2017, China is equipping 48 fabs, with equipment spending of $6.7 billion; looking ahead to 2018, SEMI predicts that 49 fabs to be equipped, with spending of about $10 billion.

Other regions also show solid growth rates.  The SEMI World Fab Forecast indicates that Europe/Mideast and Korea are expected to make the largest leaps in terms of growth rates this year with 47 percent growth and 45 percent growth, respectively, year-over-year (YoY).  Japan will increase spending by 28 percent, followed by the Americas with 21 percent YoY growth.

The SEMI Industry Research & Statistics team has made 195 changes on 184 facilities/lines in the last quarter, with eight new facilities added and three fab projects cancelled. SEMI’s World Fab Forecast provides detailed information about each of these fab projects, such as milestone dates, spending, technology node, products, and capacity information. The World Fab Forecast Report, in Excel format, tracks spending and capacities for over 1,100 facilities including future facilities across industry segments.  The SEMI World Fab Forecast and its related Fab Database reports track any equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size, including new equipment, used equipment, in-house equipment, and spending on facilities for equipment. Also check out the Opto/LED Fab Forecast.

Survey results that will be posted in the March Update to the 20th anniversary 2017 edition of IC Insights’ McClean Report show that eleven companies are forecast to have semiconductor capital expenditure budgets greater than $1.0 billion in 2017, and account for 78% of total worldwide semiconductor industry capital spending this year (Figure 1). By comparison, there were eight companies in 2013 with capital spending in excess of $1.0 billion. As shown in the figure, three of the top 11 major capital spenders (Intel, GlobalFoundries, and ST) are forecast to increase their semiconductor spending outlays by 25% or more in 2017.

The biggest percentage increase in spending by a major spender in 2016 came from the China-based pure-play foundry SMIC, which ran its fabrication facilities at ≥95% utilization rate for much of last year. SMIC initially set its 2016 capital expenditure budget at $2.1 billion. However, in November, the company raised its spending budget to $2.6 billion, which resulted in outlays that were 87% greater than in 2015.

In contrast to the surge of spending at SMIC last year, the weak DRAM market spurred both Samsung and SK Hynix to reduce their total 2016 capital spending by 13% and 14%, respectively. Although their total outlays declined, both companies increased their spending for 3D NAND flash in 2016. As shown, Micron is forecast to cut its spending by 13% in 2017, even after including Inotera, which was acquired by Micron in December of last year.

In 2016, GlobalFoundries had plenty of capacity available. As a result, the company cut its capital expenditures by a steep 62%. As shown, the company is forecast to increase its spending this year by 33%, the second-largest increase expected among the major spenders (though its 2017 spending total is still expected to be about half of what the company spent in 2015). It is assumed that almost all of the spending increase this year will be targeted at installing advanced processing technology (the company announced that it is focusing its efforts on developing 7nm technology and will skip the 10nm node).

Figure 1

Figure 1

After spending about $1.06 billion last year, Sony is expected to drop out of the major spender listing in 2017 as it winds down its outlays for capacity additions for its image sensor business and its spending drops below $1.0 billion. As shown in Figure 1, ST is expected to replace Sony in the major spender listing this year by increasing its spending by 73% to $1.05 billion.  It should be noted that ST has stated that this surge in outlays is expected to be a one year event, after which it will revert back to limiting its capital spending to ≤10% of its sales.

IC Insights recently released its new Global Wafer Capacity 2017-2021 report that provides in-depth detail, analyses, and forecasts for IC industry capacity by wafer size, by process geometry, by region, and by product type through 2021.  Figure 1 splits the world’s installed monthly wafer production capacity by geographic region (or country) as of December 2016.  Each regional number is the total installed monthly capacity of fabs located in that region regardless of the headquarters location for the companies that own the fabs.  For example, the wafer capacity that South Korea-based Samsung has installed in the U.S. is counted in the North America capacity total, not in the South Korea capacity total.  The ROW “region” consists primarily of Singapore, Israel, and Malaysia, but also includes countries/regions such as Russia, Belarus, and Australia.

Figure 1

Figure 1

As shown, Taiwan led all regions/countries in wafer capacity with 21.3% share, a slight decrease from 21.7% in 2015 when the country first became the global wafer capacity leader.  Taiwan was only slightly ahead of South Korea, which was in second place.  The Global Wafer Capacity report shows that South Korea accounted for 20.9% of global wafer capacity in 2016, slightly more than the 20.5% share it held in 2015.  Two companies in Taiwan and two in South Korea accounted for the vast share of wafer fab capacity in each country.  In Taiwan, TSMC and UMC held 73% of the country’s capacity while in South Korea, Samsung and SK Hynix represented 93% of the IC wafer capacity installed in 2016.

Japan remained firmly in third place with just over 17% of global wafer fab capacity.  Micron’s purchase of Elpida several years ago and other recent major changes in manufacturing strategies of companies in Japan, including Panasonic spinning off some of its fabs into separate companies, means that the top two companies (Toshiba and Renesas) accounted for 64% of that country’s wafer fab capacity in 2016.

China showed the largest increase in global wafer capacity in 2016, rising 1.1 percentage points to 10.8% from 9.7% in 2015. China’s gained marketshare came mostly at the expense of North America’s share, which slipped 0.9 percentage points in 2016. With a lot of buzz circulating about new ventures and wafer fabs in China in the coming years, it will be interesting to watch how quickly China’s installed wafer capacity grows.  It is worth noting that China first became a larger wafer capacity holder than Europe in 2010.  The two companies with the largest portion of wafer fab capacity in China were SMIC and HuaHong Grace (including shares from joint ventures).

In total, the top five wafer capacity leaders accounted for more than half of the IC industry’s wafer fab capacity, having increased from 2009, when the top five wafer capacity leaders accounted for approximately a third of global capacity.