Semiconductor Material: Silicon Wafer

The rumors of insufficient supply of 8-inch wafers have been long-standing, and the news of a mighty sharp price increase is on the rise. At a time when 12-inch wafers have been put into mass production, this seems to be against the trend of technology.

The size of silicon wafer grows as technology advances

 

From 4-inch wafers in 1975 to 12-inch wafers now, wafer sizes have been growing. The reason is that the larger the size of the wafer, the higher the utilization rate. Driven by the interests, manufacturers have invested in expanding the production capacity of 12-inch wafers. Currently, 12-inch wafer is dominating the wafer market, and its production is several times bigger than that of 8-inch wafer, and wafers of other sizes were extremely compressed and are likely to be phased out.

Smaller silicon wafer will be eliminated gradually

But 8-inch wafers will not be replaced by 12-inch wafers in a short term.

The competitiveness of 8-inch wafers is that they have formed mature specialty wafer processes. These special technologies have strict tolerance limits on the fab's process parameters, and the yield of finished products is high at mature 8-inch fabs.

At present, the downstream products of 8-inch wafers include various power chips, sensors for photography recognition or fingerprint recognition, MCUs and wireless communication chips in smart hardware, smart cards, etc., covering broad sectors like consumer electronics, communications, computing, industrial, automotive, etc. The demand of 8-inch wafers is extensive and the number is huge.

In addition, due to the high cost, the 12-inch wafers representing advanced processes are mainly used in more profitable electronic products with more precise processes, leaving less application space for processes of 65nm and above. The reduction in product process size leads to an increase in leakage, so 8-inch wafers still have a large footprint.

The capacity of 20mm wafer is increasing

The 8-inch wafer capacity is closely related to its main raw material silicon wafer. Since most 8-inch fab equipment has been depreciated and the fixed cost is low, the price and supply of silicon wafers will directly affect the downstream 8-inch wafer market.

Silicon wafer is the biggest sector of wafer manufacturing materials

 

Silicon wafer is the core material of semiconductors, it is the most expensive material with the requirement of high purity. Therefore, the industry barriers are extremely high and a highly monopolistic pattern is present. Now, the top five manufacturers — Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, Taiwan's Global Wafer, Germany's Silitronic, and South Korea's SK Siltron have a market share of more than 90%.

The two leading companies in silicon wafers are all from Japan. With the strong capitals and advanced technologies, they have maintained positive growth for years.

Japan is the leading region with more than 60% of market share

 

Both Shin Estu and Sumco are running well

 

Shin Estu has a higher profit rate than Sumco

 

 

The semiconductor materials industry in mainland China started late, and was restricted by technology, capital, and talents. Mainland China’s semiconductor materials industry generally showed the characters of a small quantity, a small scale, an outdated technology, and a dispersed industrial layout. Although there are a number of suppliers engaged in silicon wafers, these suppliers’ achievement on large-size silicon are bleak. Large-scale silicon wafers in mainland China are mainly imported.