Industry News
450mm road to nowhere?
THE INFORMATION NETWORK has That same argument was pushed
suggested that companies should forth by the semiconductor companies
boycott 450mm development. The during discussions on the transition
planned transition to 450mm diameter from 200mm wafers to 300mm wafers
silicon wafers for semiconductor about 10 years ago. In 2002, 38.2% of
production will be disastrous for the equipment purchased was for 300mm
equipment industry, according to a production, and 1.4% of silicon wafers
recently published report by The processed were 300mm in diameter. In
Information Network. 2008, 92.1% of equipment purchased
MEMC is pushing for the transition was for 300mm and 37.4% of silicon
but recently announced layoffs and a wafers were 300mm. Within that time,
speeding up of 450mm wafer R&D revenues increased from about $10
enabling manufacturers to reduce costs billion per month at the start of 2002 to
as 2.25 times more chips can be made $20+ billion in December 2008. In
on a 450mm wafer. contrast, equipment bookings started
off 2002 at $645 million, reached a
peak of $1.8 billion in June 2006, and
Decline for ended 2008 at about $800 million.
“Quite a disconnect,” noted Dr.
portable media Robert N. Castellano, President of The
Information Network. “Semiconductor “Clearly the equipment
players sales took off while equipment sales manufacturers were the losers in the
have remained essentially flat. No 300mm transition, and there is no
THE WORLDWIDE semiconductor wonder manufacturers and Sematech rational explanation that will change
market for portable media players are pushing for 450mm wafers.” the picture in the 300-to-450mm
6
(PMPs) is poised to drop significantly After 2001, the industry changed transition, added Dr. Castellano. “Only
from $7.5 billion in 2008 to $4.6 and continued a relentless growth while the largest equipment companies with
www
billion in 2013, representing a the equipment industry has been the deepest pockets, who can even
.eur negative compound annual growth relatively flat, save for the peaks and afford 450mm tool development in the
oasiasemiconductor
rate (CAGR) of -9%, according to a valleys reminiscent of the 90s. first place, will survive.”
forecast from IDC. A mature market,
the economic slowdown, growing
similarity with mobile phones and
mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and
Light for future circuits
inevitable cannibalization all
.com
contribute to the shrinking Nature Photonics published the first its associated laboratory INTEC at
semiconductor opportunity in PMPs. experimental proof of all optical ultra- Ghent University, Lehigh University and
While revenue for most of the fast communication signal processing ETH Zürich fabricated an innovative
square4
Issue III 2009
semiconductor components will with silicon-based devices for optical waveguide structure by
decline in line with the total decline transmission speeds above 100Gbit/s. combining deep-ultraviolet lithography,
in PMP unit shipments, wireless The paper results from the standard CMOS processing and organic
connectivity semiconductors will collaboration between University of molecular beam deposition. This so-
exhibit modest growth, driven by Karlsruhe, Germany; IMEC, Leuven, called silicon-organic hybrid (SOH)
the increase in attach rate for FM, Belgium; Lehigh University, USA and approach enables the fabrication of
WLAN, and Bluetooth radios. ETH Zürich, Switzerland. The waveguides which pave the way
“As PMPs have grown in achievements are a key step towards towards all-optical processing, where
capabilities, the dividing line has the development of complex silicon- photons do no longer need to be
blurred between multimedia phones based photonic integrated circuits. converted to electrons. This is
and MIDs,” said Ajit Deosthali, All optical signal processing is of considered to be one of the most
research manager for Short Range interest in telecommunications promising ways to handle the rapidly
Wireless Semiconductors at IDC. applications, where speed, power and increasing global communication traffic.
“Moving forward, one should expect cost are crucial. A key element to ePIXfab is a European funded
the semiconductor players to focus enable all-optical processing is optical initiative coordinated by IMEC to allow
on the larger multimedia phones and waveguides with highly nonlinear and cost-effective fabless prototyping in
growing opportunity in MIDs.” ultra-fast performance. Researchers wafer-scale silicon photonics
from University of Karlsruhe, IMEC and technology for R&D.
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