Demand for Wafers Surging
Wafer companies are expanding production facilities one after another as the ongoing semiconductor shortage has spread to the wafer sector.
SK Siltron is pushing for an expansion of its wafer plant. The expansion will start as early as this year. The expansion will be the first in four years since SK Group acquired LG Siltron and expanded its Gumi plant in 2017.
The new plant is expected to produce 12-inch (300-mm) epitaxial wafers, which is used for production of highly integrated system semiconductors such as microprocessor unit (MPUs) and CMOS image sensors (CISs). Its annual production capacity will be 20,000 to 30,000 sheets.
Global wafer manufacturers are also rushing to invest in facilities. Shinetsu and Sumco, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 players, recently laid out plans to expand their facilities. The two enjoy a combined global market share of 55 percent. Global Wafers of Taiwan, the world's third-largest wafer maker, recently announced that it was considering expanding its facilities.
Wafer manufacturers have rarely increased production facilities over the past few years as semiconductor producers increasingly adopted microfabrication. Last year, Samsung Electronics shipped 40 percent more chips than the previous year, even though it used similar amount of wafers as 2019. The same goes for SK Hynix. A 176-layer NAND flash recently developed by this company also has 35 percent higher bit productivity per wafer than before. This means that a production volume that required three wafers previously can now be produced with just two wafers.
Things have changed in recent years. Demand for semiconductors surged. So did demand for wafers. SEMI said global wafer sales in the first quarter of this year amounted to 14.94 million, up 15 percent from 13.33 million in the first quarter of last year. Sales of all sizes of wafers increased this year. Six-inch wafers enjoyed a 12 percent increase in sales, 8-inch waters a 16 percent increase and 12-inch wafers a 13 percent increase from last year.