Chip shortages, sure, but it's a good time to be a silicon wafer maker
- Reference: 1644490987
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/10/record_wafer_year/
- Source link:
This is, as you might well imagine, linked to demand for microchips in the COVID-19 pandemic for personal computers, backend servers, and more. A demand so high that it has [1]outstripped supply.
"The robust year-over-year growth in silicon wafer area shipments and revenue reflects the heavy dependence of the modern economy on silicon wafers," [2]said Neil Weaver, outgoing chairman of SEMI this week.
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"Wafers are the engine of digital transformation and new technologies that are reshaping how we live and work."
[4]
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For 2021, silicon wafer revenue grew 13 per cent to $12.6bn, according to SEMI, surpassing 2007's record-setting $12.1bn. Annual sales between 2011 and 2017 had bobbed between $9.9bn and $7.2bn, shot up to $11.4bn in 2018, drifted down to $11.2bn, then bounced up in 2021.
The amount of silicon the industry shipped grew 14 per cent from 12.4 billion square inches (80 billion cm 2 ) in 2020 to 14.165 billion square inches (91.4 billion cm 2 ) last year. 300mm, 200mm and 150mm wafer sizes proved particularly popular among buyers, we're told. SEMI's silicon wafer figures cover semiconductor components, and not solar energy parts, we note.
[6]New chip-stuff factories are like buses: You wafer ages then two come along at once
[7]Dear chip designers, if you're struggling to get components made, try 28nm. Supply set to overtake demand
[8]German regulators nix Taiwanese titan GlobalWafers' acquisition of Siltronic
[9]Intel R&D spending surges after years of neglect as Gelsinger pledges to make Chipzilla great again
While SEMI didn't give out data on production locations, it's an increasingly important factor in global geopolitics. Both [10]America and [11]Europe have declared an interest in spawning homegrown production of wafers and chip-making.
Earlier this week the EU [12]pledged €11bn ($12.6bn) to kick-start domestic wafer and semiconductor manufacturing. By 2030 a total of €43bn ($49bn) of subsidies and tax breaks are also set to be up for grabs.
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Asia isn't going to be left behind either. [14]Earlier this month Global Wafers announced massive expansion plans for its wafer-producing facilities following [15]the rejection of its takeover of German maker Siltronic. And Toshiba announced plans for a new factory in Japan that will more than double its wafer output.
In the long term, the world's demand for wafers is only going to go up – though the market ebbs and flows. With [16]mounting evidence that the chip market is heading for some oversupply issues, wafer makers should enjoy the good times while they can. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/semiconductor_supply_28nm/
[2] https://www.semi.org/en/news-media-press-releases/semi-press-releases/worldwide-silicon-wafer-shipments-and-revenue-set-new-records-in-2021-semi-reports
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgVEv5R4ci7iV-AJ3UdyvAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgVEv5R4ci7iV-AJ3UdyvAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YgVEv5R4ci7iV-AJ3UdyvAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/07/pivot_globalwafers_uses_earmarked_siltronic/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/semiconductor_supply_28nm/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/02/globalwafers_siltronic_sale_off/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/intel_earnings_analysis/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/05/us_house_passes_america_competes/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/08/eu_chip_projects/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/08/european_chips_act/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgVEv5R4ci7iV-AJ3UdyvAAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/07/pivot_globalwafers_uses_earmarked_siltronic/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/02/globalwafers_siltronic_sale_off/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/semiconductor_supply_28nm/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Wafers
You do know that Newport Wafer Fab don't fabricate wafers ?
Haven't we seen this or something similar before?
First the public sector invests heavily to increase production of [wafers and chips] with tax breaks and other "incentives". Then, the downturn hits and "jobs" are at stake. This is where the public sector will hand out more money to "save" the "jobs". Finally, the public sector takes over in one or another form (probably subsidized sale) when some factories are to close because they are not profitable (enough [for the investors]). In the end practically all is lost anyway.
Does this sound familiar? Please check the newsfeeds from the last decades and detect a pattern.
Staggering scale
At the end it says that global output of wafers is 91.4 Billion square centimetres per annum. If my math is right that is 9.14 million square metres, or in old money, 2,259 acres. That's a respectably sized farm, or if you prefer a bit less than Heathrow Airport. That's a lot of wafer.
Re: Staggering scale
But only 0.438 milliWales
"Earlier this week the EU pledged €11bn ($12.6bn) to kick-start domestic wafer and semiconductor manufacturing"
A mere pittance though. That's not even a single fabs worth of Litho equipment, let alone all the other stuff required. TSMC is investing 100 billion in the next 3 years. Intel is spending 200 Billion on 2 new fabs in Arizona. And nobody seems all that interesting in spending billions in the EU to build a fab for which they will then find no staff and probably little support from whatever country they're located in.
The money wasn't promised for a Fab, it was mostly rebranding existing academic funding.
It was going to be matched (allegedly) by untold Billions in private sector investment to actually build stuff.
Even the Eu sometimes does sneaky government PR spin
Wafers
Nobody flipped eyelids when Newport Wafer Fab got sold to Chinese though.