- Wafer sizes were initially only 23 mm in 1960, and at present they are 300 mm
- Increasing the wafer size, as per the Technavio, reduces manufacturing costs by 30 per cent
The semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market size is expected to grow by USD$ 1.71 billion, during 2020-2024, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Technavio mentioned that the increase in adoption IoT devices is leading to the high demand for chipsets and modules for integrating technologies such as Bluetooth, NB-IoT, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and several others.
“Factors such as the growing investments in lower technology node, and growing investment in 3D NAND and FinFET technologies will have a significant impact on the growth of the semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market value during the forecast period,” stated a senior analyst at Technavio.
Interest in wafers of larger diameters
As per Technavio, the increasing focus on large diameter wafer size will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. For the last 40 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the wafer size of semiconductors. Wafer sizes were initially only 23 mm in 1960, and at present they are 300 mm.
A large diameter wafer has a larger surface area, which indicates a high number of chips can be manufactured at lower manufacturing costs. Increasing the wafer size reduces manufacturing costs by 30 per cent and device costs by 20 to 50 per cent. Several foundries are opting to make changes to their present 300 mm wafer fabs, which will help in the optimization of IC production.
Major memory manufacturers, such as Samsung, Micron Technology, and SK HYNIX, have been developing memory ICs built on 300 mm wafers and are the major consumers of these wafers. Therefore, it is expected that the increasing demand for large diameter semiconductor wafers will have a positive impact on the growth of the global semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market.
APAC region led the semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market
The APAC region led the semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market share in 2019, followed by North America, Europe, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, the APAC region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as the presence of a large number of foundries in the region.
“Development of smart city projects, the increasing implementation of smart industries, the introduction of smart wearables, and the focus on connected vehicles and smart homes is increasing the demand devices. The number of IoT devices will encompass more than 25 billion connected devices by 2021,” read the report.
It continued, “This will accelerate the development of multifunctional ICs compatible with all the networking standards and support higher bandwidth applications, resulting in the increasing demand for semiconductor wafers to manufacture these components. Thus, the increase in demand for IoT devices will drive the semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market growth during the forecast period.”
