Tag Archives: letter-wafer-business

The Critical Materials Council (CMC) and TECHCET have issued a call for papers to be presented at the “Critical Materials for Device Driven Scaling” Seminar to be held May 5-6, 2016 in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. Semiconductor manufacturing industry experts from IDMs, OEMS, and materials suppliers will gather to discuss actionable information on critical materials used in HVM fabs, while also looking at issues associated with new materials needed for future devices. Tim G. Hendry, Vice President, Technology & Manufacturing and Group Director of Fab Materials, Intel Corp., will provide the keynote address.

Following the annual members-only CMC meeting to be held May 3-4, the 2016 CMC Seminar is open to the public. Business drives our world, but technology enables the profitable business of manufacturing new devices in IC fabs, and new devices need new materials. In addition to panel discussions, presentation sessions will focus on the following topics:

  1. Semiconductor Market Briefing: application-specific demands for devices and materials
    II. Tracking the Supply Chain down to Earth, Wind, and Fire: manufacturing and supply chain
    III. Emerging Materials Evolutions: alternate logic channels and new memory switches, and
    IV. Materials Revolutions: beyond silicon CMOS.

Attendees will include industry experts handling supply-chains, business-development, R&D, and product management, as well as academics and analysts. The early-bird registration fee (before March 15th) for the CMC Seminar is $349; the standard registration fee is $425 (after March 15th). CMC member companies will be attending this meeting, as it is an important part of their membership. Additional information can be found online at http://cmcfabs.org/seminars.

To submit a paper for consideration, please send a 1-page abstract focusing on critical materials supply dynamics by February 29, 2016 to [email protected].

The Critical Materials Council for Semiconductor Device Fabricators was originally started by SEMATECH in the early 1990’s, and is now managed by TECHCET. It actively works to identify issues surrounding the supply, availability, accessibility, or lack thereof, of semiconductor process materials, current and emerging, also known as “Critical Materials”. This is done by collectively working to solve common materials related issues in a non-competitive environment. The CMC supports the continuous improvement of the Materials Supply Chain Community for Semiconductor Fabricators. For more information see www.CMCFabs.org .

Tom Werthan, a veteran semiconductor and finance executive experienced in leading financial operations at public and privately-held technology companies, has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at Phononic.

Werthan comes to Phononic from Solid State Equipment, a semiconductor capital equipment company, where as CFO he was a key participant in the successful sale of the company to Veeco Instruments in 2014. Previously, Werthan held the CFO position at Sunlogics and Emcore, where he was a key participant in the company’s Initial Public Offering in 1997. Werthan has also held finance and accounting leadership positions at Audio Visual Labs, and has public accounting experience at Ernst & Young.

“We’re excited to welcome Tom to the Phononic family,” said Tony Atti, CEO and founder of Phononic.  “Tom’s proven track record in M&A and the debt and equity capital markets will provide the necessary leadership to build a financially sustainable global enterprise.”

“Having seen the impact of semiconductor technology in the growth of solar energy as a major source of electric power, an even greater disruptive opportunity exists in semiconductor cooling and heating,” said Tom Werthan. “I’m excited to join the team.”

Werthan is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, and a member of the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees, Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Monmouth County. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Boston University.

Headquartered in the heart of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Photonic provides solid state semiconductor technology that can be applied to everything from refrigeration to fiber optics, removing the barriers of traditional approaches and ushering in a new era of cooling and heating.

More than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020, according to Gartner, Inc. The impact of the IoT on consumers’ lives and corporate business models is rapidly increasing as the cost of “instrumenting” physical things with sensors and connecting them to other things — devices, systems and people — continues to drop.

“Uses of the IoT that were previously impractical will increasingly become practical,” said W. Roy Schulte, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The IoT is relevant in virtually every industry, although not in every application. There will be no purely ‘IoT applications.’ Rather, there will be many applications that leverage the IoT in some small or large aspect of their work. As a result, business analysts and developers of information-centric processes need to have the expertise and the tools to implement IoT aspects that play a role in their systems.”

Gartner has made four more predictions for the IoT:

Through 2018, 75 percent of IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned.

Gartner expects three out of four IoT projects to face schedule extensions of up to 100 percent with the consequent cost overruns. The more ambitious and complicated the project, the greater the schedule overruns. For some projects, compromises will be made to keep them on-schedule, leading to significant weaknesses in performance, security or integration into existing processes. In the mid-to-long term, these compromises will require that the IoT project be refactored and perhaps even recalled and redeployed.

“Product-centered enterprises will be the worst affected,” said Alfonso Velosa, research vice president at Gartner. “They will seek to launch smarter, connected products, although this will often be a reactive, tactical approach that seeks to address their competition’s IoT product. However, even for enterprises conducting internally centered projects that may focus on cost reductions, there will be people issues. Most of these issues will center on the normal introduction of a new technology model. It will be complicated by emerging business models that will require process and cultural change. Addressing both of these will lead to projects going over schedule.”

By 2020, a black market exceeding $5 billion will exist to sell fake sensor and video data for enabling criminal activity and protecting personal privacy.

The nature of IoT solutions, how they are deployed, and the types of data they generate and consume are giving rise to new security and privacy implications that organizations must begin to address. This is a rapidly escalating risk to the organization, bringing complexity unfamiliar to most IT and business leaders.

“The IoT has enormous potential to collect continuous data about our environment,” said Ted Friedman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The integrity of this data will be important in making personal and business decisions, from medical diagnoses to environmental protection, from commands to modify actions of machinery to identification and authorization of physical access. A black market for fake or corrupted sensor and video data will mean that data can be compromised or substituted with inaccurate or deliberately manipulated data. This scenario will spur the growth of privacy products and services, resulting in an extensive public discussion regarding the future of privacy, the means to protect individual privacy, and the role of technology and government in privacy protection.”

By 2020, addressing compromises in IoT security will have increased security costs to 20 percent of annual security budgets, from less than one percent in 2015.

As use of IoT devices grows, however, the unique requirements of IoT architecture, design and implementation over multiple industry segments and scenarios will also grow. As a result, Gartner believes that the average security budget for IT, operational technology (OT) and IoT security requirements will respond to the growth of IoT devices across all business segments and scenarios, rising from less than one percent of annual security budgets in 2015 to 20 percent in 2020.

“Major cybersecurity vendors and service providers are already delivering roadmaps and architecture of IoT security, in anticipation of market opportunity,” said Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner. “Small startups delivering niche IoT security in areas such as network segmentation, device-to-device authentication and simple data encryption are offering first-generation products and services, including cloud-based solutions where applicable. Large security vendors have already begun acquiring some of these IoT startups to support their early roadmaps and fill niches in their portfolios.”

More detailed analysis is available in the report “Predicts 2016: Unexpected Implications Arising From the Internet of Things.” This research note is part of Gartner’s Special Report “Predicts 2016: Algorithms Take Digital Business to the Next Level” a compilation of 85 reports focused on the top predictions and actions that will enable organizations to shape their digital future.

Microchip Technology Incorporated, a provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, and Atmel Corporation) today announced that Microchip has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atmel for $8.15 per share in a combination of cash and Microchip common stock.  The acquisition price represents a total equity value of about $3.56 billion, and a total enterprise value of about $3.40 billion, after excluding Atmel’s cash and investments net of debt on its balance sheet of approximately $155.0 million at December 31, 2015.

“We are delighted to welcome Atmel employees to Microchip and look forward to closing the transaction and working together to realize the benefits of a combined team pursuing a unified strategy.  As the semiconductor industry consolidates, Microchip continues to execute a highly successful consolidation strategy with a string of acquisitions that have helped to double our revenue growth rate compared to our organic revenue growth rate over the last few years.  The Atmel acquisition is the latest chapter of our growth strategy and will add further operational and customer scale to Microchip,” said Steve Sanghi, President and CEO of Microchip.

“Microchip and Atmel have a strong tradition of innovation, stretching across microcontroller, analog, touch, connectivity and memory solutions.  Joining forces and combining our product portfolios will offer our customers a richer set of solution options to enable innovative and competitive products for the markets they serve,” said Ganesh Moorthy, COO of Microchip.

“Our Board of Directors determined, after consultation with our financial advisor and outside legal counsel, that the transaction with Microchip is a superior proposal for Atmel’s stockholders under the terms of our merger agreement with Dialog Semiconductor plc that we terminated today.  Under the Microchip transaction, Atmel stockholders will receive a much higher cash consideration per share compared to the Dialog deal, as well as the opportunity for further upside through the ownership of stock of Microchip,” said Steven Laub, President and CEO of Atmel.

Concurrent with this announcement, Microchip announced that its Board of Directors has authorized an increase in the existing share repurchase program to 15.0 million shares of common stock from the approximately 11.4 million shares remaining under the prior authorization.  Under this program, in the next several months, Microchip intends to repurchase the approximate number of shares it issues in the Atmel acquisition, which is expected to result in the transaction having the accretive effects of a cash transaction from a financial perspective.

Following the closing, the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Microchip’s non-GAAP earnings per share.  Based on currently available information, Microchip anticipates achieving an estimated $170 million in synergies from cost savings and incremental revenue growth in fiscal year 2019 that begins on April 1, 2018.

The transaction has been approved by the Board of Directors of each company and is expected to close in the second quarter of calendar year 2016, subject to approval by Atmel’s stockholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.  No approval by Microchip’s stockholders is required in connection with the transaction.  The transaction is not subject to any financing conditions.

Transaction Details

In the transaction, stockholders of Atmel will receive $7.00 per share in cash and $1.15 per share in Microchip common stock, valued at the average closing price for a share of Microchip common stock for the ten most recent trading days ending on the last trading day prior to the closing, with the maximum number of Microchip shares to be issued in the transaction being 13.0 million.  To the extent that the number of Microchip shares issuable would exceed 13.0 million, the cash consideration per Atmel share will be increased such that the value of the combined cash and stock consideration will remain at $8.15 per share (as valued based upon the average closing price described in the previous sentence). Microchip expects to fund the cash portion of the purchase price through a combination of cash on its balance sheet and borrowings under its existing credit facility.

In connection with the termination of the merger agreement with Dialog, Atmel has paid Dialog a termination fee of $137.3 million.

Qualcomm Incorporated and TDK Corporation today announced an agreement to form a joint venture to enable delivery of RF front-end (RFFE) modules and RF filters into fully integrated systems for mobile devices and fast-growing business segments, such as Internet of Things (IoT), drones, robotics, automotive applications and more, under the name RF360 Holdings Singapore PTE. Ltd. (RF360 Holdings). The joint venture will draw upon TDK’s capabilities in micro-acoustic RF filtering, packaging and module integration technologies and Qualcomm’s expertise in advanced wireless technologies to serve customers with leading-edge RF solutions into fully integrated systems.

In addition to creating RF360 Holdings, Qualcomm and TDK will expand their collaboration around key technology fields, including sensors and wireless charging.

The agreement is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions and is expected to close by early 2017.

“TDK is a leading electronic components manufacturer with cutting-edge expertise in RF filters and modules, and we are looking forward to deepening our collaboration and together accelerating innovation and better serving the ecosystem for next-generation mobile communications,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “The joint venture’s RF filters will bolster Qualcomm RF360 front-end solutions to enable Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI) to deliver a truly complete solution to the ecosystem. This will enable us to expand our growth opportunity by allowing us to accelerate our strategy to provide OEMs across our business segments with fully integrated systems that will enable them to deliver at scale and on an accelerated timeframe.”

“The joint venture with Qualcomm is a win for both companies, which complement each other ideally,” said Mr. Takehiro Kamigama, President and CEO of TDK. “Customers will benefit from our unique and comprehensive portfolio, which will further strengthen TDK’s position in key growth business segments and open new and exciting business opportunities. In this context, it was a major objective to ensure that our customers can continue to expect a seamless supply of discrete filters and duplexers, as well as modules.”

RF360 Holdings poised to meet challenging RF industry requirements

As one of the world’s most dynamic and fast-moving global industries, mobile communications is placing growing demands on all players. Current and future smartphones, for example, must support dozens of frequency bands for 2G, 3G and 4G LTE, while offering connectivity for wireless LAN, satellite navigation, Bluetooth, and more. In addition, the convergence of 4G mobile communications and the IoT means that manufacturers of wireless solutions for mobile IoT devices must achieve new levels of miniaturization, integration and performance, especially for the RFFE in these devices. Further, 5G will expand this complexity even more. Module solutions will be essential to supporting this increasing complexity in the RFFE.

Together with RF360 Holdings, QTI will be ideally positioned to design products from the modem/transceiver to the antenna in a fully integrated system.

RF360 Holdings will have a comprehensive set of filters and filter technologies, including surface acoustic wave (SAW), temperature-compensated surface acoustic wave (TC-SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) to support the wide range of frequency bands being deployed in networks across the globe. Moreover, RF360 Holdings will enable the delivery of RFFE modules that will include front-end components designed and developed by QTI. These components include CMOS, SOI and GaAS Power Amplifiers, a broad portfolio of Switches enhanced via a recent acquisition, Antenna Tuning and the industry’s leading Envelope Tracking solution.

RFFE is an $18 billion US dollar opportunity by 2020 — with filters acting as a key driver of this opportunity. The filter assets that will reside in RF360 Holdings currently are among the top 3 in the industry. TDK is currently shipping in excess of 25 million filter functions per day, and growing, and holds design wins at all major handset OEMs, including leading premium tier smartphones. TDK, and subsequently RF360 Holdings, are committed to investing in capacity increases to meet the growing industry demand. The business that will be transferred constitutes a part of the total TDK SAW Business Group activities and the current run rate is approaching $1 billion US dollars of sales per annum and approximately 4200 employees are involved in that business. RF360 Holdings will be a Singapore corporation and will have a global presence, with R&D, manufacturing and/or sales locations in the US, Europe and Asia and its headquarters function in Munich, Germany.

Deepening collaboration between Qualcomm and TDK

In addition to the joint venture, Qualcomm and TDK have agreed to deepen their technological cooperation to cover a wide range of cutting-edge technologies for next-generation mobile communications, IoT and automotive applications, including passive components, batteries, wireless charging, sensors, MEMS and more.

Microchip Technology Incorporated, a provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions today announced that it was informed last night that the Board of Directors of Atmel Corporation had determined that Microchip’s  proposal to acquire Atmel for $8.15 per share in a cash and stock transaction constitutes a “Superior Proposal” under the terms of Atmel’s merger agreement with Dialog Semiconductor PLC.

Under the terms of Microchip’s proposal, stockholders of Atmel will receive $7.00 per share in cash and $1.15 per share in Microchip common stock, valued at the average closing sale price for a share of Microchip common stock for the ten most recent trading days ending on the last trading day prior to the closing. The maximum number of Microchip shares to be issued in the transaction is 13.0 million, after which the cash consideration per share will be increased such that the combined cash and stock consideration will remain at $8.15 per share. Microchip was informed that Atmel has given written notice to Dialog of its intent to change its recommendation and terminate the Dialog transaction in favor of the Microchip proposal. As a result, Atmel will be entitled to terminate the Dialog merger agreement if Dialog does not make, within four business days following the receipt of the notice, a written, binding proposal that would cause the Microchip proposal to no longer constitute a “Superior Proposal.”

“The combined business of Microchip and Atmel will create a microcontroller, analog and internet of things (IoT) powerhouse. Atmel’s portfolio of microcontrollers, wireless, touch, memory and automotive products complements and enhances many of Microchip’s solutions in these areas.  We believe that combining Atmel’s business with Microchip’s business will offer our combined customers a broader range of innovative solutions to serve their needs, while creating significant long-term stockholder value,” said Steve Sanghi, President and CEO of Microchip.

“Microchip’s enduring vision is to be the very best embedded control solutions company ever. Our strategy behind this vision is to enable the growing market for smart, connected and secure solutions for the automotive, industrial, office automation, consumer and telecom markets. We believe that the combined microcontroller, analog, memory, automotive, security, computing, networking, wireless, touch, timing and technology licensing product lines of Microchip and Atmel will present a powerful portfolio of innovative solutions for these growing markets.  We also believe this acquisition will further enhance our analog and mixed-signal opportunities as we expect to attach these products to an expanded set of microcontroller customer applications,” said Ganesh Moorthy, COO of Microchip.

If Microchip and Atmel execute a merger agreement on the terms proposed by Microchip, the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Microchip’s non-GAAP earnings per share following the closing of such transaction.

J.P. Morgan is acting as Microchip’s exclusive financial advisor. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. is acting as Microchip’s legal advisor.

SEMI today announced the recipients of the 2015 SEMI Awards for the Americas. The awards honor Chenming Hu for the BSIM families of compact transistor models, Alex Lidow for commercialization of GaN power devices, and an Intel team for implementation of bulk CMOS FinFET production. The awards were presented at the 2016 SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) yesterday in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Some innovations become such an integral part of the semiconductor manufacturing industry’s infrastructure that the technology itself becomes fundamental.  2015 award recipients all share the distinction of having pioneered processes and integration breakthroughs that became ubiquitous.

For developing the Berkeley Short-channel Insulated-gate FET Model (BSIM) families of compact transistor models, enabling worldwide adoption of advanced device technologies, Professor Chenming Hu was presented with the 2015 Americas SEMI award. Analog circuit simulators, such as Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE), form the foundation for circuit simulators used in integrated circuit design, and compact transistor models are the heart of simulators. BSIM3 and its successors, developed in the BSIM group at University of California Berkeley under the leadership of Professor Hu, are the industry standard for transistor modeling. For the past 20+ years, all commercial circuit simulators have included BSIM models.

The Americas SEMI award was presented to Dr. Alex Lidow, Ph.D., for innovation in power device technology enabling commercialization of GaN devices with performance and cost advantages over silicon.  Silicon-based devices were reaching their limits in speed and efficiency, prompting Lidow to develop Gallium Nitride (GaN) technologies, but high cost limited its commercial success. Lidow led the GaN development activity at International Rectifier and continued that work at Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC), a company he co-founded in 2007.  EPC introduced the first commercial enhancement mode GaN power transistors in 2009. Challenges from resolving packaging limitations to establishing a low-cost supply chain were overcome through persistence, paving the way for the successful commercialization of GaN power devices.

An Intel development team ─ Christopher P. Auth, Robert S. Chau, Brian S. Doyle, Tahir Ghani and Kaizad R. Mistry ─ were honored with SEMI Awards for the first development, integration and introduction of a successful bulk FinFET technology for CMOS IC production, first implemented at the 22nm node in 2011. The successful introduction of a bulk FinFET process in commercial IC logic and I/O devices, aided by support from SEMI member companies with development of advanced materials, processes and production tools, was a critically important milestone, which led to the widespread adoption of bulk FinFETs as the technology of choice of leading-edge, fully-depleted CMOS logic devices.

“It is a great privilege to present the 2015 SEMI Awards to these fine technologists, and it is an honor to recognize their contributions to the advancement of technology. It’s innovators like these that propel the industry forward and I thank them for their leadership,” said Karen Savala, president, SEMI Americas.

“The 2015 SEMI Awards recognize contributions in modeling and simulation as well as successful commercialization of new types of logic transistors and power devices,” said Bill Bottoms, chairman of the SEMI Award Advisory Committee. “These important milestones played an enabling role in maintaining the rate of progress in size, cost, performance and efficiency of semiconductor devices and accelerated the commercialization of new device types for logic and power.”

The SEMI Award was established in 1979 to recognize outstanding technical achievement and meritorious contribution in the areas of Semiconductor Materials, Wafer Fabrication, Assembly and Packaging, Process Control, Test and Inspection, Robotics and Automation, Quality Enhancement, and Process Integration.

The award is the highest honor conferred by SEMI. It is open to individuals or teams from industry or academia whose specific accomplishments have broad commercial impact and widespread technical significance for the entire semiconductor industry. Nominations are accepted from individuals of Americas-based member companies of SEMI. For a list of past award recipients, visit www.semi.org/semiaward.

Two GLOBALFOUNDRIES engineers, one in New York and one in Vermont, have been designated as IEEE Fellows by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  This prestigious honor is the highest grade of IEEE membership in one of the world’s leading professional organizations for the advancement of technology.

The local honorees are Mukta G. Farooq from the GLOBALFOUNDRIES East Fishkill, New York, site and Alvin J. Joseph from the Essex Junction, Vermont facility.  Both joined GLOBALFOUNDRIES last year when the company acquired IBM’s microelectronics business.

Dr. Farooq, from Hopewell Junction, NY, is a prolific inventor with more than 180 patents.  While with IBM, she was named a Lifetime Master Inventor as well as a member of the Academy of Technology.  She received an IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for leading the 3D integrated circuit technical development.  She currently is the technical leader for advanced silicon packaging and for 3D integration development & interconnect technology.  Work in these latter fields earned Mukta a selection to IEEE Fellow.  She is also an IEEE Electron Device Society Distinguished Lecturer.  She received her BS from the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay; her MS from Northwestern University; and her PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Joseph, from Williston, VT, has authored or co-authored more than 100 technical journal papers and publications and has been issued over 75 patents.  He was the recipient of two IBM corporate awards for his leadership in developing high-performance SiGe BiCMOS and silicon front-end-module technologies.  He is currently a GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fellow providing development vision for differentiated radio frequency/analog & mixed signal technologies.  Alvin was the chair for the IEEE Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting and was appointed an IEEE Fellow for contributions to silicon-germanium bipolar-CMOS and RF silicon-on-insulator technology.  He received his MS and PhD degrees from Auburn University.

The IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred upon less than 0.1% of the IEEE membership – 400,000+ in 160 countries.  It is based upon an outstanding record of accomplishments in one of the many IEEE fields of interest (including aerospace systems, computers and telecommunication, biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics) and is selected annually, following a rigorous evaluation procedure.

“We are very proud and excited to have two new IEEE Fellows on our team at GLOBALFOUNDRIES,” said Dr. Gary Patton, chief technology officer and senior vice president of GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ research and development.  “The skills and expertise of our team are what make this company special and it is extremely satisfying to see two of our best being recognized in this way by an industry-leading organization like IEEE.”

Ferrotec Corporation this week announced that the largest pure-play GaAs foundry company, WIN Semiconductors Corp., has selected Temescal systems from Ferrotec Corporation for its next stage of expansion by ordering multiple e-beam evaporators for metal deposition. A total of $8.4M in orders for Auratus enhanced UEFC series Temescal systems have been placed in 2015.

Since WIN’s inception in 1999, Temescal systems have been WIN’s preferred e-beam system. With their latest third fab expansion, WIN has selected multiple Auratus enhanced deposition systems, Ferrotec newest generation of patented Temescal UEFC series evaporators employing contact free, magnetic drive High Uniformity Lift-off Assembly (HULA) wafer carriers for the manufacturing of HBT (Heterojunction Bipolar) and pHEMT (Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility) transistors. The superior COO (Cost of Ownership) of Ferrotec’s systems with patented HULA planetary rotating domes and conic chambers are key factors for the selection of the Temescal systems.

“Continued growth of mobile devices and those advances supporting the Internet of Things (IoT) provide WIN with a good market platform for this next phase of growth. With approximately 60% of market share in GaAs foundry, WIN has the proven track record of manufacturing GaAs and GaN devices with highly complex designs,” said Steve Chen, Senior Vice President of WIN. “Likewise with Temescal systems representing over 60% of e-beam evaporator market share in the GaAs market, Ferrotec is also a leader that has demonstrated innovative technologies to address the technical requirements of GaAs device manufacturers. It is therefore natural for the leader of the GaAs foundry business to select the forward-looking Ferrotec for the highly demanding work of meeting the increasingly sophisticated wireless and IoT markets.”

“We are dedicated to addressing the most critical issues in e-beam evaporation,” said Gregg Wallace, Managing Director of Temescal Systems at Ferrotec. “Ferrotec’s award winning Temescal systems are built upon a solid history of over 300 patents and achieve superior performance in uniformity, stoichiometry and particulate control while offering the highest material collection efficiency. Ferrotec is very proud to be the primary evaporator supplier in WIN’s third fab expansion.”

Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to decline 4.7 percent in 2016, to $59.4 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. (Table 1). This is down from the 3.3 percent growth predicted in Gartner’s previous quarter’s forecast.

“The 2016 outlook for the semiconductor manufacturing equipment market reflects a bleaker outlook for end-user electronics demand and the world economic environment,” said David Christensen, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Capital investment policies of leading semiconductor vendors have remained cautious against the background of sluggish electronics demand. However, the long-term outlook shows a return to growth, although the wafer-level manufacturing equipment market is expected to enter a gentle down cycle in 2016 due to the loss of the supply and demand balance in the DRAM market.”

Table 1

Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending and Equipment Spending Forecast, 2014-2018 (Millions of Dollars) 

 

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Semiconductor Capital Spending ($M)

64,569.5

62,291.3

59,360.8

63,622.1

69,182.0

Growth (%)

11.6

-3.5

-4.7

7.2

8.7

Wafer-Level Manufacturing Equipment ($M)

33,684.1

33,713.2

32,903.2

35,699.0

39,129.1

Growth (%)

16.2

0.1

-2.4

8.5

9.6

Wafer Fab Equipment ($M)

31,953.0

31,906.5

31,097.6

33,630.3

36,689.8

Growth (%)

16.3

-0.1

-2.5

8.1

9.1

Wafer-Level Packaging and Assembly Equipment ($M)

1,731.1

1,806.7

1,805.6

2,068.7

2,439.2

Growth (%)

14.3

4.4

-0.1

14.6

17.9

Source: Gartner (January 2016)

2016 spending on wafer-level manufacturing equipment is forecast to decline 2.4 percent. Within the forecast, different segments are expected to fare differently in response to varying end-market conditions. For example, the lithography segment will grow 1.4 percent, while the etch, clean and planarization equipment markets in 2016 are expected to decline by 2.9 percent. The deposition equipment segment will improve slightly in 2016 with negative 3.2 percent growth. Beyond 2016, the market turns positive, with relatively strong growth forecast through 2018.

This research is produced by Gartner’s Semiconductor Manufacturing program. This research program, which is part of the overall semiconductor research group, provides a comprehensive view of the entire semiconductor industry, from manufacturing to device and application market trends. Additional analysis on the outlook for the semiconductor market can be found at “Forecast Analysis: Semiconductor Capital Spending and Manufacturing Equipment, Worldwide, 4Q15.”