VLSI Research - Top 10 Critical Subsystems Suppliers for 2015

A bit late but interesting ranking for those of you interested in semiconductor processing equipment. As released in April by VLSI Research. It is also interesting to see that European companies are strong in this market.

VLSIresearch released its 2015 Top 10 Suppliers of Critical Subsystems to the Semiconductor and Related Manufacturing Industries today.  Sales of critical subsystems were relatively flat with a value of $8.1B in 2015, while six of the Top 10 suppliers achieved sales growth. The Top 10 suppliers now account for 48% of all critical subsystems sales.

There were no changes in the top five rankings list this year due to stable market conditions and the absence of major mergers and acquisitions. Carl Zeiss SMT retained the top spot with sales just above $1B. Edwards, in second place, narrowed the gap slightly with sales of $630M. MKS Instruments once again benefited from the diversity of its product range to hold third position with sales of $540M and Brooks Automation managed to keep fourth place. Advanced Energy had a great year and asserted its dominance of the RF power subsystems market by growing 17% to consolidate fifth place. The big gainer in 2015 was VAT Group, jumping up from eighth to sixth place as it continues to dominate the vacuum valve field. Horiba and Pfeiffer Vacuum ranked seventh and eighth place respectively, with Ichor Systems just managing to stay ahead of Ebara Corporation in tenth place.

VLSIresearch includes vacuum valves as a critical subsystem and as a result VAT Group is included as a Top 10 supplier in this year’s rankings list.

More information about Critical Subsystems is available here: https://www.vlsiresearch.com/public/csubs/

New Critical Materials Conference's Powerful Agenda

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New Critical Materials Conference's Powerful Agenda May 5-6, Hillsboro Oregon The Critical Materials Conference provides a framework to catalyze the flow of "actionable" technical and supply chain information related to critical materials.  New Additions to the Critical Materials Conference Include:  David Thompson, Ph.D., Director of Process Chemistry of Applied Materials Agony in New Material Introductions - Minimizing and Correlating Variabilities Suresh Ramalingam, Sr. Director, Advanced Packaging Development of Xilinx Packaging Materials - Future Challenges  This year's conference also features speakers from Intel, Micron, Veeco, and Air Liquide; among more than  20 powerful & actionable presentations A highly differentiated program, with networking opportunities for all attendees.  For full agenda details click here. Themes of the Conference are centered around the needs of the Critical Materials Council and the global IC fabrication industry. While executive conferences typically focus on the "what" and "why" of materials technologies, this conference will discuss "how" new materials can be controllably, safely, and cost-effectively used in fabs. The Conference will also include market data to validate "when" materials will be needed. Attendees from fabs, OEMs, and materials suppliers alike will have the opportunity to interact with the presenters and colleagues, to gain insights into best-practices of the entire supply-chain.   For more information on the conference go to www.cmcfabs.org/seminars/  Great Sponsorship Opportunities available,  please contact cmcinfo@techcet.com or call 1-480-382-8336 Sponsors and Committee

Growth forecast for Wafer Fab Equipment and ALD according to Gartner

Good news of ALD - Gartner has forecasted a growth for the Advanced nodes to come!

Gartner says that the Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to reach $348 billion in 2015, a 2.2 percent increase from 2014, but down from the previous quarter's forecast of 4.0 percent growth, according to Gartner, Inc.

Growth forecast for Wafer Fab Equipment according to Gartner (Graph from ASMi Investor Technology Seminar at SEMICON West)

"The outlook for the major applications that drive the semiconductor market, including PCs, smartphones, and tablets, have all been revised downward. This, combined with the impact of the strong dollar on demand in key markets, has resulted in a lower semiconductor forecast for 2015," said Jon Erensen, research director at Gartner. "The typical second-quarter bounce did not materialize this year, and as a result, the semiconductor industry is more back-end loaded and dependent on a strong third-quarter rebound, driven by Windows 10 and the ramp-up to the holiday season.” 

From an application point of view, smartphones and solid-state drives (SSDs) will continue to drive semiconductor market growth, while the traditional PC segment will experience the greatest decline, with production units down 8.7 percent in 2015, slightly weaker than the previous quarter's forecast. "Inventory in the PC market remains high despite vendors looking to clear the supply chain in anticipation of Windows 10 and Intel's Skylake products. Any issues with the launches of Windows 10 or Skylake in the third quarter of 2015, which are expected to reinvigorate PC sales, could lead to further decline," said Mr. Erensen.

In the smartphone market, Apple's iPhone is the bright spot for the market with strong unit growth and increasing average selling prices (ASPs), driven by the strong performance of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. However, lackluster performance in high-end Android smartphones and general softness in the smartphone market in China will continue to impact growth.

Although the wearables market, including smartwatches, head-mounted displays (HMDs), smart glasses and Bluetooth headsets, is a growing industry, revenue for wearables semiconductors — processing, sensing and communications chips — will represent only 1 percent of total semiconductor revenue by 2019. Smartwatches are the top semiconductor growth in the near term.

From a device point of view, DRAM continues to be one of the primary growth drivers of the overall industry. DRAM revenue is expected to increase 3.8 percent in 2015, following a 32 percent increase in 2014. However, Gartner expects an oversupply (or "underdemand") to develop in 2016 as limited new capacity comes online and technology migration continues. DRAM industry revenue is expected to decline 17.4 percent in 2016 and 7 percent in 2017.

"The typical second-quarter bounce did not materialize this year, and as a result, the semiconductor industry is more back-end loaded and dependent on a strong third-quarter rebound, driven by Windows 10 and the ramp-up to the holiday season," said Mr. Erensen.

Applied Materials announced a next-generation etch tool at SEMICON West

 Applied Materials, Inc. announced a next-generation etch tool at SEMICON West, the Applied Centris(TM) Sym3(TM) Etch system, featuring an entirely new chamber for atomic-level precision manufacturing. To overcome within-chip feature variations, the Centris Sym3 system leapfrogs current tools to provide chipmakers with the control and precision needed to pattern and create densely packed 3D structures in advanced memory and logic chips.

Applied Materials Centris Sym3 - an entirely new chamber for atomic-level precision manufacturing

"Drawing on over 20 years of etch learning and our expertise in precision materials removal, the Sym3 system represents a brand new design, built from the ground up, that solves persistent and impending industry challenges," said Dr. Raman Achutharaman, vice president and general manager of Applied's Etch business unit. "Customer traction has been remarkable, resulting in the fastest adoption rate we've seen for an etch tool in the company's history, with record ramp to production at leading-edge fabs."

The Centris Sym3 etch chamber employs Applied's unique True Symmetry(TM) technology with multiple tuning controls for optimizing global process uniformity to the atomic level. Key to the design is a focus on controlling and removing etch byproducts, which are increasingly hampering within-chip patterning uniformity. The system mitigates byproduct re-deposition to overcome the challenges of line edge roughness, pattern loading and defects - issues that are becoming more limiting for each successive technology node. Combined with an advanced RF technology that controls ion energy and angular distributions, the Sym3 system delivers unsurpassed vertical profiles for high aspect ratio 3D structures.

The Centris Sym3 platform's six etch and two plasma clean process chambers feature system intelligence software to ensure that every process in every chamber matches precisely, enabling repeatability and high productivity for high-volume manufacturing.