Wafer Fabrication Equipment Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026

The global wafer fabrication equipment market is projected to witness a CAGR of 9.32% during the forecast period to reach a market size of US$101.804 billion by 2026, increasing from US$54.544 billion in 2019. A wafer is a piece of silicon or other semiconductor material, designed in the form of a very thin disc. Wafer fabrication has been called a process that has been developed of various types of affirmative methods to develop photonic or several types of fully electrical circuits on the given or respective semiconductor wafers. Wafer fabrication is directly used to build and develop components with the given electrical structures.

Market Drivers

The wafer fabrication equipment is majorly driven by the growing demand for consumer electronics. Products like radio frequency amplifiers, LED's, computer microprocessors, optical components of computers uses wafer fabrication technologies. As these products are used in several industry verticals, the indirect demands for fabrication equipment have been positively affected. Advancement in telecom and semiconductor technologies is also furthering the market ahead during the forecast period.

By equipment type, the oxidation system has been growing significantly during this period because silicon forms a stable and adherent oxide with good electrical properties. By geography, the Asia-Pacific region shows the fastest growth rate in the market. This is attributed to the development of foundries in China, Japan, and Taiwan and the increasing demand for consumer electronics. By size, 100mm-200mm equipment has been focused on majorly in semiconductor fabrication.

Growth Factors

Growing demand from consumer electronics industries

Semiconductor wafer fabrication has several applications in the consumer electronics industry that have been ranging from audio/video and several types of entertainment products, such as television, smartphones, pagers, copiers, and also automotive parts. It usually uses several steps of chemical processes which develops a semiconductor device. The demand for consumer electronics and devices is increasing by leaps and bounds which is expanding the fabrication equipment market. Worldwide trade in electronic products, which also includes communications and information communication technology (ICT) equipment and consumer electronic products, was estimated at approx. $1.4 trillion in the year 2012, having grown 5.9 percent a year between 2008 and 2012 (source: World Bank). Moreover, increasing investment in R&D and product innovation is assisting the growth of the market.

Innovation in semiconductor technology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been rolled out across industry verticals like research, healthcare, high-tech, and consumer electronics. To support AI-integrated circuits, improvements in semiconductor architectures have been urged to speed the movement of data in and out of memory with increased power and more efficient memory systems. Apart from AI, other innovations in the form of gravitational wave detectors, battery-free sensors for the medical industry, mobile CMOS imager, MEMS Vibrational Energy Harvester for IoT, etc rely on semiconductor technologies extensively. These novel innovations are factoring the market for wafer fabrication equipment market.

Restraints

Although the fabrication equipment market is witnessing growth, factors such as the requirement of very specific raw materials, state-of-art machinery requirement, and huge investment bring in challenges to the emerging market players and thus restricting the growth of the market.

Impact of COVID–19

The year 2020 had an unprecedented impact on every industry and nation as the COVID-19 crisis caused an increase in remote work. This transition has resulted in the increasing dependency on electronic devices which up ticked the need for silicon wafers. it has been projected that increasing innovation of several technologies will enhance and digitalize the world, and that also demands that high-performance semiconductors function effectively. Thus, the market for fabrication equipment is anticipated to be affected positively.

Competitive Insights

The imperative players in the market implement growth strategies to develop and keep a competitive advantage over their respective competitors. For instance,

• Lam Research Corp. announced the expansion of its production plant in the US state of Oregon with a novel and automated 45,000 square foot facility in the city of Sherwood, which has been planned to open in December 2021.
• SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd announced the development of an advanced and novel SS-3300S scrubber single wafer cleaning system. The novel model SS-3300S offers high and valuable stable performance at different processing speeds of around 1,000 wafers per hour, allowing it to deliver industry-leading productivity.
• Tokyo Electron launched the Prexa in 2021. It is a next-generation 300mm wafer prober that succeeds the Precio series of 300mm wafer probers.
• KLA-Tencor Corporation announced the acquisition of a key firm Orbotech Ltd in the year 2019 for around $38.86 in given cash and approx. 0.25 of a share of KLA-Tencor, the company's common stock.

Segmentation:

By Equipment Type

• Oxidation Systems
• Diffusion Systems
• Epitaxial Reactors
• Photolithography Equipment
• Others

By Size

• 50 mm-100 mm
• 100 mm-200 mm
• 200 mm-300 mm
• 300 mm-450 mm

By Geography

• Americas
• USA
• Brazil
• Others
• Europe Middle East and Africa
• Germany
• France
• Israel
• Others
• Asia Pacific
• China
• Japan
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Others