GSA Q1 wafer fab and back-end pricing reports available

USA: GSA released the Q1 2012 Wafer Fabrication & Back-End Pricing Reports that include written analysis, a downloadable MS Access database and interactive online results. Highlights from Q4 data include:

* Contrary to forecasts for YE 2011, utilization rates increased for the period 10/1/2011 to 12/31/2011.

* The median pricing for 200mm and 300mm production CMOS wafers decreased by 4.1 percent and 3.6 percent QoQ, respectively.

* Participants reported that the median mask set cost for 300mm CMOS wafers decreased QoQ for the period 10/1/2011 to 12/31/2011 at a rate of 24.3 percent, but increased at a rate of 3.9 percent YoY.

* For the type of foundry used, participants reported only 6.6 percent use an IDM when the previous quarter reported 20 percent use IDMs.

* For the median costs for the package/lead count combinations, xQFP packages with 65-128 leads reported the only QoQ increase at 16.42 percent.