New semiconductor wafer starts buoyed by key chip growth

NEW TRIPOLI, USA: Here are the highlights from "The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing" report, published by The Information Network.

NAND: NAND flash revenue, which rose 38 percent in 2010 to $18.7 billion, will increase another 18 percent to $22 billion in 2011. Bit growth rate will increase 90 percent in 2011 from 16.5 gigabytes to 31.3 gigabytes.

What does that mean for the equipment market? New wafer start capacity increase by 210,000 wafer starts per month with another 400,000 wafer starts per month for technology conversion upgrades.

Bottom line – 28 percent increase in equipment spending on NAND.

DRAM: DRAM increasing content per PC from 3.3 gigabytes to 4.4 gigabytes coupled with a growth in unit shipments of PCs up nearly 15 percent to 400 million units.

What does that mean for the equipment market? New wafer start capacity in increase by 125,000 wafer starts per month with another 450,000 wafer starts per month for technology conversion upgrades.

Bottom line – 17 percent decrease in equipment spending on DRAM because of overbought conditions in 2010.

Foundries: Foundry activity from tablet production, which will reach 54 million units in 2011 as well as migration of advanced ICs from logic IDMs.

What does that mean for the equipment market? New wafer start capacity in increase by 140,000 wafer starts per month.

Bottom line – 27 percent increase in equipment spending on by foundries for tablets and for advanced capabilities.