Europe: Strong growth in chip equipment spending in 2015

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: SEMICON Europa will feature semiconductor device technology for a wide range of applications, equipment, materials, services and will provide access to critical information relative to device manufacturing, partnership opportunities, next-generation fab requirements  and funding.

The event will be held in France (7-9 October in Grenoble) for the first time with an expanded exhibition (25 percent larger). The opportunities and challenges in microelectronics will be discussed in more than 70 sessions with 300 speakers.

Global capital spending on semiconductor equipment is projected to grow  21.1 percent in 2014 and 21.0 percent in 2015. According to the August edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast (www.semi.org/MarketInfo/FabDatabase), semiconductor equipment spending will increase from $29 billion in 2013 to $42 billion in 2015.

SEMI projects back-to-back years of double-digit growth in Europe and Mid-East semiconductor equipment sales. The SEMI outlook forecasts that the European/Mid-East semiconductor equipment market will grow 11 percent in 2014 (reaching $1.9 billion) and 100 percent in 2015 (reaching $3.8 billion). In terms of percentage of worldwide sales, the Europe/MidEast region’s share is expected to increase from 5.9 percent in 2013 to 9.0 percent in 2015.

SEMICON Europa 2014 offers several semiconductor Front-End manufacturing highlights, including the 18th Fab Managers Forum, which is themed "Improving Productivity for Mature Fabs. “Speakers from IMEC, Infineon AG, and Bosch will present on Internet of Things, Automation Level in Fabs, and Smart Connected Sensor Devices. The prospect for future 450mm wafer processing, as well other technical and business challenges in semiconductor and related micro and nano-electronics industries, will be addressed at SEMICON Europa.

In the two-day special program, “450mm Innovations and Synergies for Smaller Diameters,” leaders will present on progress, research, and collaboration on the future of the semiconductor manufacturing. The session includes presentations from Global 450 Consortium, European Commission, ASM Europe BV, and RECIF Technologies.

In addition, a Secondary Equipment Session, themed "Fundamental to European Competitiveness?”, features presentations from  Infineon Technologies AG, STMicroelectronics, and Robert Bosch GmbH.

Other conference programs at SEMICON Europa (www.semiconeuropa.org) will explore critical issues in Fab Management, Advanced Packaging, 3DIC, Test and MEMS. In addition, SEMICON Europa this year features a special focus on Electronic Applications (Imaging Conference and Nanoelectronics for Healthcare Conference) and Electronic Components (Low Power Conference and Power Electronics Conference).