Semiconductor Equipment: the Report and the Show

Somebody said to me recently that SEMICON West, which takes place in San Francisco July 14-16th, isn’t that big a deal since very little manufacturing goes on in the US any more. In fact 15% of manufacturing capacity is in north america (I think that actually means the US since I don’t think there are any fabs in Canada). That is more than China, almost twice as much as Europe. Of course if you put all the Asian countries together you get to about 70% of all capacity.

Looking at just new capacity, due to the presence of leading device manufacturers, North America represents a significant portion of the new equipment market. For the last two years, North America was the second largest market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment behind only Taiwan.

Last week SEMI announced he update of its World Fab Forecast report for 2015 and 2016. The report projects that semiconductor fab equipment spending (new, used, for Front End facilities) is expected to increase 11 percent (US$38.7 billion) in 2015 and another 5 percent ($40.7 billion) in 2016. Since February 2015, SEMI has made 282 updates to its detailed World Fab Forecast report, which tracks fab spending for construction and equipment, as well as capacity changes, and technology nodes transitions and product type changes by fab. You can hear more about this on Monday July 13th, the “day before SEMICON West” by attending the the SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium an update on the semiconductor supply chain market outlook. In addition to presentations from Gartner analysts, Christian Dieseldorff of SEMI will present on Trends and Outlook for Fabs and Fab Capacity and Lara Chamness will present on Semiconductor Wafer Fab Materials Market and Year-to-Date Front-End Equipment Trends.

On Tuesday there is a keynote panel at 9am, and on Wednesday a keynote on IoT, also at 9am.

• Tuesday: Keynote Panel – Scaling the Walls of Sub‐14nm Manufacturing
  Featuring: Qualcomm, Stanford University, imec and more.

• Wednesday: Keynote – The Internet of Things and the Next Fifty Years of Moore’s Law
  Doug Davis, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Internet of Things Group, Intel

One the exhibit floor there are two presentation areas known as TechXPOTs. There is one in the north hall of Moscone and one in the south. The presentations are included with any pass for the exhibits. Topics that will be covered include:

• What’s Next for MEMS?
• Automating Semiconductor Test Productivity
• Emerging Generation Memory Technology: Update on 3DNAND, MRAM and RRAM
• Materials Session: Contamination Control in the Sub-20nm Era
• Subsystem and Component Suppliers at Critical Cross Roads to Deliver on Yield and Productivity
• Equipment and Materials Opportunities for Flexible Hybrid Electronics
• Packaging Session: Auto Utopia — Gearing up Semiconductor to Turn Dreams to Reality
• The Evolution of the New 200mm Fab for the Internet of Everything
• Monetizing the IoT: Opportunities and Challenges for the Semiconductor Sector
• CMP Technical and Market Trends
• Factory of the (Near) Future: Using Industrial IoT in Semiconductor Manufacturing Sector
• Update on Industry Status of 450mm

There’s more too:

• Freescale IoT Truck
• Fuel Cell Car
• Innovation Village
• Pavilions: China, Europe, Malaysia, Silicon Saxony

Details on the World Fab Forecast are here.
The website for SEMICON West, including links for registration, is here.