What are 8-inch wafers used for?

Among them, 8-inch silicon wafers are mainly used in characteristic or differentiated technologies. Products include power chips, sensors for photography/fingerprint recognition, MCUs, wireless communication chips, etc., covering consumer electronics, communications, computing, industrial, automotive, and other fields.

Why semiconductor fab is so expensive?

The operation cost of running such a plant is so high that you will have to have enough demand to fill up the plant to produce tens of thousands of wafers per month to break even financially. You will need to compete with all the established foundries, such as TSMC, UMC, SMIC, Global Foundry, etc., for customers.

How much are semiconductor fabs?

The cost of building leading-edge fabs continues to increase as well; for example, the average 8-inch fab costs $1.6 billion to build, while a state-of-the-art 12-inch fab costs $3 billion to $4 billion.

How many semiconductor fabs are there in the world?

With nine new 300mm wafer fabs scheduled to open in 2019, the worldwide number of operational 300mm wafer fabs is expected to climb to 121 this year (Figure 1) and grow to a total of 138 fabs at the end of the forecast period.

What does 12 inch wafer mean?

300 mm (11.8 inch, usually referred to as “12 inch”) 775 μm. 2002. 125 grams.

What does a semiconductor foundry do?

A semiconductor manufacturer that makes chips for other companies. Also called “fabs,” semiconductor foundries make most of the chips in the world for hundreds of “fabless” companies that design but do not manufacture, including some of the largest and well-known tech leaders such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Apple.

Why is there a semiconductor shortage?

In the beginning, the shortage was partly due to stronger demand for more advanced chips from the consumer electronics and computer industry through Covid-19. For context, worldwide semiconductor sales declined between 2018 and 2019, but by 2020, sales grew 6.5\%. Demands from consumer products weren’t the only factor.

Why are fabs so expensive?

The clean room is where all fabrication takes place and contains the machinery for integrated circuit production such as steppers and/or scanners for photolithography, in addition to etching, cleaning, doping and dicing machines. All these devices are extremely precise and thus extremely expensive.

Who makes semiconductor fabs?

Open plants

Why is there a shortage of semiconductors?

Why are semiconductors so important?

Semiconductors are an essential component of electronic devices, enabling advances in communications, computing, healthcare, military systems, transportation, clean energy, and countless other applications.

Should you choose a 200mm or a 300mm fab for chips?

The decision to produce a chip in a 200mm or 300mm fab depends on the device type and process. Today, demand for 200mm fab capacity is a mixed picture. One way to quantify demand is by looking at fab utilization rates.

Is there a shortage of 200mm and 300mm fabs?

Most foundries have both 200mm and 300mm fabs. This is not a new problem. From 2015 to 2019, 200mm fab capacity was in short supply throughout the industry simply because demand was greater than supply. Device makers wanted to expand their 200mm fab capacities, but not enough 200mm equipment was available.

What is happening to the 200mm semiconductor market?

Then, in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic appeared and caused a slowdown in the entire semiconductor industry, including the 200mm market. By mid-2020, however, the market bounced back amid a surge in demand for computers, tablets, TVs, and other products.

What is the expected 200mm fab capacity in 2021?

The industry is expected to add more than 220,000 wpm in new 200mm capacity in 2021. In total, 200mm fab capacity is expected to reach 6.4 million wpm, according to SEMI. 200mm fab capacity includes discretes, epi, LEDs, MEMS, and semiconductors.