At the end of 2021, 57% of the industry’s total monthly wafer capacity was owned by the top five companies. One year earlier the share was 56% and back in 2018 it was 53%. A decade ago, the share held by the top five was about 40%. The industry continues to get more top heavy regarding the composition of companies fabricating ICs. This analysis comes from Knometa’s recently released Global Wafer Capacity 2022 report.

Combined, the top five companies had the capacity to process 12.2 million wafers per month at the end of the year, or 10% more than the year before. That growth rate was one percentage point higher than for the industry’s total capacity.

View Table of Data

Samsung — In 2021, the company widened its lead as the industry’s biggest source of fab capacity. At the end of the year, Samsung held 19% of total global IC wafer capacity and 44% more capacity than the second largest company TSMC. Samsung boosted its capital spending 45% in 2020 and that translated into a sizable increase in available capacity in 2021. Most of the money was spent on the construction of multiple 300mm fab lines at its site in Pyeongtaek.

Samsung said at its 2021 Investors Forum that, when compared to its 2017 capacity level, the company’s fab expansion plans will result in a tripling of capacity by 2026. Those plans will include a new $17 billion fab to be built in Taylor, Texas, the construction of which is due to start in 2022. The Taylor fab will support the company’s strong push to expand foundry services for leading edge processes.

TSMC — The company’s capacity growth in 2021 was relatively mild, but strong demand for its services spurred a significant increase in capital spending during the year that will result in a higher capacity growth rate in 2022. TSMC plans to remain aggressive with its spending in 2022 and 2023 as well.

Most of TSMC’s recent fab construction activity has been centered at its Fab 18 site in Tainan. The company recently started adding capacity again at its Fab 12 site in Hsinchu. The last fab phase to open at the site was Phase 7 in 2017. Fab 12 Phase 8 is under construction and scheduled to begin operations in 2022.

TSMC has also experienced strong demand for mature technologies, especially for 28nm CMOS. To meet this demand, the company is expanding its Fab 16 facility in China to double the capacity there by mid-2023.

Fabs at three entirely new or “greenfield” sites around the globe are or soon will be under construction. The first phase of a large fab site (Fab 21) in Phoenix, Arizona, is already under construction and will begin processing 300mm wafers in 2024. The $12 billion Fab 21 Phase 1 plant will be used to make chips with 5nm technology. In Kumamoto, Japan, TSMC partnered with Sony to build a $7 billion 300mm fab that will also open in 2024. In November 2021, the company announced the selection of Kaohsiung as the site for another fab complex in Taiwan.

Micron — The company’s capital spending the past couple years has been focused more on upgrading existing capacity for more advanced processing capabilities than on increasing capacity. Nevertheless, the company made some additional capacity available in 2021 in the form of phase 4 at Fab 15, phase 2 at Fab 16, and an expansion of its legacy products fab in Virginia.

During Micron’s fiscal Q1 2022 earnings call it was reported that for both DRAM and NAND the company plans to achieve bit supply growth with node transitions through the middle of the decade. In other words, Micron’s capital spending is focused on new technologies and equipment that will enable it to increase chip production volumes via die shrinks for DRAM and continued 3D scaling for 3D NAND. As a result, the company will not bring online any major fab expansions in the next couple years. The next big fab project for Micron, announced in October 2021, is the construction of a new 300mm fab at its site in Hiroshima. This fab will open for production in 2024.

SK Hynix — After boosting its capital spending substantially in 2018 for the construction of new fabs in Korea and China, SK Hynix scaled back expenditures in 2019 and 2020. Fab M15 in Cheongju and Fab C2F in Wuxi both began operations in 2019 but ramping of capacity and production at the fabs has been gradual. The company lifted its capex significantly in 2021 and that should translate to a larger increase in capacity for 2022.

Construction of the company’s newest fab, M16 in Icheon was finished in early 2021 and the company began operations in the fourth quarter of the year.

In December 2021, SK Hynix took ownership of Intel’s Fab 68 facility in Dalian, China. However, the fab is still used by Intel to fabricate 3D NAND chips, so its capacity at the end of 2021 was not included as part of SK Hynix. The acquisition of Intel’s NAND and SSD businesses by SK Hynix is a multiple-stage transaction over several years and stipulates that Intel can use the fab for wafer fabrication until March 2025, when SK Hynix will complete the purchase.

Kioxia/Western Digital — Capacity jointly owned by Kioxia and Western Digital increased at the lowest rate among the top five companies in 2021. The partners are increasing 3D NAND die production volumes more by 3D scaling advancements than by increasing capacity. Western Digital’s President of Technology & Strategy, Srinivasan Sivaram reported in December 2021 that the company’s approach to production capacity is currently about “95% conversion, 5% new wafers,” meaning that nearly all its product supply needs are being met by converting to new technologies. For 3D NAND, that means increasing NAND layer counts on the chips to achieve a greater amount of memory storage per unit area. Mr. Sivaram has said Western Digital has a clear roadmap to more than 300 layers in the next four to five years.

Kioxia and Western Digital have a new fab at their site in Yokkaichi scheduled to begin operations in early 2023. Like other fabs at the site, the Y7 fab will be built in two phases. In April 2022, the partners started building a second fab at their site in Kitakami. The existing K1 fab started production in 2020 and the new K2 fab is expected to start up in 2024.

About Global Wafer Capacity 2022
Global Wafer Capacity provides a detailed examination of existing fab capacity along with a five-year forecast. The report has been published on an annual basis since 2007, initially by IC Insights. In December 2021, IC Insights transferred business associated with Global Wafer Capacity to co-founder Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey became an independent contractor in 2014 but continued as the principal analyst and project manager for Global Wafer Capacity. Published in February 2022, Global Wafer Capacity 2022 is sold by Mr. Yancey’s company Knometa Research. For more information, visit https://knometa.com/gwc.

About Knometa Research
Knometa Research is a semiconductor technology and market analysis firm led by former IC Insights executive, Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey co-founded IC Insights in 1997 with Bill McClean and Brian Matas. In 2014, Mr. Yancey established Knometa Research to serve as an independent contractor for IC Insights and TechSearch International. For more information, visit https://knometa.com.

• Read more about Top Five Leaders Continue Expanding Share of Global IC Fab Capacity

ESPOO, Finland, 5th of April 2022 – Picosun Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has played a vital role in enhancing electro-optical characteristics of micro-LEDs in research done by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Taiwan.

The usage of dielectric films as a passivation material is a popular technique to suppress dangling bonds as well as to improve output power and external quantum efficiency in LEDs. The study conducted at NYCU compared III-Nitride micro-LEDs of different sizes with and without ALD Al2O3 passivation. The results showed external quantum efficiency enhancement of 70% for 5 µm × 5 µm micro-LEDs and 60% for 10 µm ×10 µm micro-LEDs when using ALD Al2O3 passivation.

In addition, to achieve full color display, an inkjet printing to pattern quantum dots automatically has been developed at NYCU. The solution can considerably improve the precision of color pixels and satisfy the high-resolution requirements. Picosun ALD passivation technology was successfully used for preventing the quantum dots from photo-oxidation and degradation. After a 500 hours environmental reliability test, the color gamut remained at excellent level.*

“Micro-LED technology has been the disruptive technology in the next generation displays, and more application areas are emerging its benefits being long lifetime, high power efficiency and high brightness. With quantum dot-based technology micro-LEDs can be used in applications such as virtual and mixed reality as they allow the use of single-color, blue, micro-LED chips resulting in lower manufacturing costs. Our study has proved that ALD passivation plays a key role in upcoming nanometer-scale devices”, says Hao-Chung Kuo, professor at NYCU.

“Picosun’s ALD technology has been production-proven at many prominent LED manufacturers. ALD films’ superior conformality and uniformity, and their ability to ensure reliable, pinhole-free encapsulation even at extremely low film thicknesses is a key benefit. Furthermore, the ALD process can be run at moderate temperatures”, explains Juhana Kostamo, VP, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.

*NTSC and Rec. 2020 standards: Color gamut 99% and 90% at 50% humidity and 50℃ temperature
NTSC: Analog television format encoding system developed by National Television Standards Committee
Rec. 2020: International Telecommunication Union Recommended standard defining various aspects of ultra-high-definition television with standard dynamic range and wide color gamut.

More information:
Juhana Kostamo
Vice President, Industrial Business Area, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 369 9565
Email: [email protected]
www.picosun.com

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, China mainland and Taiwan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

• Read more about Picosun ALD enhances micro-LED efficiency

Heidelberg, Germany – Heidelberg Instruments has received a significant order from a leading semiconductor wafer-level packaging production company in Asia for its MLA 300 Maskless Aligner. With this order, Heidelberg Instruments has reached another important milestone towards the company’s goal of becoming a leading supplier of maskless lithography tools to the advanced wafer-level packaging industry.

Optimized for industrial manufacturing, the MLA 300 Maskless Aligner features distinct benefits for the wafer-level technology: The flexibility of maskless lithography allows rapid design customizations, and even unique designs on each substrate. This is of particular use for chip packaging where mounted die shift and each panel is unique. Meeting these demands, the MLA 300 can be seamlessly integrated into wafer-level packaging production lines, fully automating wafer production with a resolution down to 2 µm lines and spaces. The MLA 300 reduces production costs and efforts by eliminating mask procurement, verification, and management requirements. Operating costs are reduced by utilizing a long-lifetime exposure laser and fewer consumables. Modularity enables fast maintenance, replacement, or repair. Real-time autofocus compensates substrate warp or corrugations for flawless patterning.

Since its market introduction at the end of 2019, the MLA 300 has received a terrific reception and has become a popular tool for the microfabrication industry. The MLA 300 comprises a customizable wafer handling system, customizable vacuum chucks, and a large autofocus compensation help account for challenges like warped substrates, and software designed for production environments.

“This latest order, by a leading advanced wafer packaging production group, is a big step forward for us and maskless lithography. With the MLA 300, Heidelberg Instruments has introduced the most innovative maskless lithography system for mid-volume wafer production and high-volume prototyping. So far, several fabrication groups globally have purchased and installed the MLA 300 tool, replacing their traditional lithography production platforms, such as mask aligners and steppers,” says Alexander Forozan, Head of Global Sales and Business Development, Heidelberg Instruments group of companies.

MLA300 is a versatile tool for application areas such as advanced semiconductor packaging, IR sensors, MEMS, electronic probes, and high precision electronic components.

Contact:
Veronika Loose
Marketing and Communications
[email protected]
+49 931 90879288

Further information:
https://heidelberg-instruments.com/

About Heidelberg Instruments Mikrotechnik GmbH
With over 35 years of experience and more than 1,200 installed systems, Heidelberg Instruments is one of the leading international players in developing and producing high-precision photolithography systems and nanofabrication tools. Heidelberg Instruments systems are installed in industrial and scientific facilities around the world. They are used for efficient direct writing and photomask fabrication for various industries, including semiconductors, quantum computing, photonics, 2D materials, IoT, and many related fields.

• Read more about Heidelberg Instruments receives an order from an advanced wafer-level packaging provider in Asia

Rochester, NY—Linton Crystal Technologies (LCT) has been awarded a U.S. Letters Patent for its Seed Lifting and Rotating System for Use in Crystal Growth. Patent 11,255,024 is the first of four applications Linton has made to the USPTO for innovations related to the seed lifting and rotating mechanism, and the company’s first approved patent.

“This patent is the first of four applications that address the increasingly critical need to counteract centrifugal forces created by the rotating mass of the seed lift as the cable spool translates along its axis of travel. As growers become larger, the need for this technology becomes even more essential” explains John Reese, mechanical engineering manager with Linton Crystal Technologies.

Typically, silicon crystal growing furnaces use a cable winch system to lift and rotate a growing crystal. Most traditional seed lift mechanisms have a grooved spool that wraps and gathers the seed cable, lifting the crystal. The spool must translate side to side to keep the gathering cable centered to a pulley, which in turn is centered on the growth chambers. Most often, the spool moves this way via an attached thread that engages to a nut. As the bolt turns into the nut in its fixed position, the head of the bolt becomes closer to the nut. In the case of a seed lift spool, the length of the screw depends on the length of translation that is necessary to wind and/or unwind the cable enough to grow the crystal to a desired length. Thus, the length of the screw increases the overall length of the cable winch system. This adds size and weight to the overall system.

As the spools shifts/translates from one end of its travel to the other, the shifting mass of the spool dramatically and negatively influences the dynamic balance of the rotating seed lift assembly, thus creating centrifugal forces that have a negative impact on the stability of the overall growth process.

Linton’s patented new “guided spool” design utilizes a floating roller that engages with the grooved spool, therefore eliminating the need for the extra threaded feature and fixed position nut. This reduces the overall weight of the mechanism, making for a more stable rotating mass. Current units that don’t have this feature require additional fixed and active weight to balance them.

About Linton
Linton is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of equipment for producing monocrystalline ingots for the solar and semiconductor industries. The company specializes in silicon and produces equipment for materials such as germanium and gallium arsenide. They also provide technical support, process engineering support and replacement parts to help clients get businesses off the ground, improve productivity and continue to innovate. Linton has been the exclusive owner of Kayex technology for eight years.

For more information, visit www.lintoncrystal.com.

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• Read more about Linton Crystal Technologies Awarded Seed Lift and Rotating System Patent

ESPOO, Finland, 22nd of March 2022 – Picosun Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has been demonstrated to be a suitable solution for protection of surfaces exposed to atomic oxygen degradation in Low Earth Orbit. High material survivability is a requirement for objects sent to space as they are faced with a number of degrading circumstances, such as exposure to atomic oxygen.

Researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have tested and analysed various material samples provided by Picosun to verify the protective coatings’ suitability for protection against atomic oxygen. This testing was performed in the ESTEC TEC-QEE Laboratory LEOX facility as part of an “open lab” test campaign. These campaigns are intended to provide access to ESA’s unique space environmental test facilities and allow collaboration with ESA’s research fellows, especially for SMEs and institutes new to the space business.

The test simulates the corroding effect of atomic oxygen, for which satellites, including the International Space Station (ISS), are exposed to. The results of the tests, performed on Kapton® HN polyimide film, silicon pieces and PCBs (Printed Circuitry Boards) protected with Picosun ALD coating clearly demonstrated the erosion protection provided by the ALD coating. The demonstrated low temperature (125 °C) film was relatively thin (20 nm) enabling coating of different relevant materials. Decreased thickness of ALD coating is known to withstand more deformation required for flexible materials than thick layers. Also, ALD coating can be applied to a 3D surface with extreme aspect ratios. The analysis performed by ESTEC consisted of mass measurement, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) inspection and thermo-optical properties measurement, partially, before and after the test.

“Atomic oxygen erosion has a major impact on the choice of external materials available for spacecrafts and satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit. Picosun ALD showed atomic oxygen resistance in the tests and forms a suitable protective coating for extreme environmental conditions, applicable also for flexible materials”, explains Adrian Tighe, Senior Materials Engineer in the Materials’ Physics and Chemistry Section at ESA.

“ALD is an advanced thin film coating method for ultra-thin, highly uniform and conformal material layers. It has proved to be the coating solution of choice already in production in solutions and innovations operating in extreme environments. Today, they can be found everywhere from deep seabed to Mars”, says Juhana Kostamo, VP, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.

More information:
Juhana Kostamo
Vice President, Industrial Business Area, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 369 9565
Email: [email protected]
www.picosun.com

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, China mainland and Taiwan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

• Read more about Picosun ALD demonstrates effective surface protection for materials in space conditions in ESA's tests.

With fab construction activity at its highest level in many years, it is not surprising that there has been talk of a market crash coming from too much capacity being added. The new Global Wafer Capacity 2022 report makes the case that, while fab expansion plans are certainly aggressive and could lead to some downward pricing pressure in 2024, a significant market downturn caused by too many fabs sitting with idle capacity is not expected.

In 2021, IC manufacturers responded to widespread shortages by increasing capacity 8.6%. This was the highest rate since 8.0% in 2011 or 10.4% in 2008. For 2022, an 8.7% expansion of capacity is expected, followed by 8.2% growth in 2023.

Capital spending for fabs and equipment, expressed as a percent of semiconductor revenue, was at 25% in 2021, the highest rate since 2001 when the ratio was 26%. In the past, very high spending-to-sales ratios usually indicated too much capacity was being added and a market correction was coming soon. In 2001, capacity utilization rates tumbled sharply from 2000 when chip demand crashed. However, in contrast to 2001, unit shipments in 2021 were very strong, resulting in a high overall utilization rate of nearly 94%.

The capex-to-sales ratio is forecast to remain high in 2022 as chip manufactures continue adding wafer capacity to address on-going shortages. Because of the depth and length of the shortages, there has been a revival in the global interest of building fabs. Governments in countries that have spent the past decade de-emphasizing the business of making chips have renewed interests in providing incentives for companies to build fabs in their countries.

Naturally, the current elevated status of fab construction activity and flood of new fab construction plans raise some concern that too much capacity will be added in the next couple years, leading potentially to downward pricing pressure from supply exceeding demand. However, Knometa Research partner IC Insights predicts good growth for IC unit demand in 2022 and 2023, followed by a lower but still positive increase in 2024.

A 5% decline in the IC average selling price in 2024 is forecast by IC Insights and a falling ASP is a sign of supply outstripping demand. However, unit shipments that year are still expected to increase 4%, resulting in a market contraction of just 2%. Furthermore, IC Insights is projecting a return to growth in 2025 and 2026.

Based on continuing healthy demand for integrated circuits and the fact that manufacturers are still working to address the vast shortage situations, the industry’s capacity current expansion plans do not seem overly excessive.

About Global Wafer Capacity 2022
Global Wafer Capacity provides a detailed examination of existing fab capacity along with a five-year forecast. The report has been published on an annual basis since 2007, initially by IC Insights. In December 2021, IC Insights transferred business associated with Global Wafer Capacity to co-founder Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey became an independent contractor in 2014 but continued as the principal analyst and project manager for Global Wafer Capacity. Published in February 2022, Global Wafer Capacity 2022 is sold by Mr. Yancey’s company Knometa Research. For more information, visit https://knometa.com/gwc.

About Knometa Research
Knometa Research is a semiconductor technology and market analysis firm led by former IC Insights executive, Trevor Yancey. Mr. Yancey co-founded IC Insights in 1997 with Bill McClean and Brian Matas. In 2014, Mr. Yancey established Knometa Research to serve as an independent contractor for IC Insights and TechSearch International. For more information, visit https://knometa.com.

Contact
Trevor Yancey, President
Knometa Research Corp.
+1-619-378-9898
[email protected]

• Read more about Industry’s aggressive fab expansion plans do not necessarily mean a capacity glut is looming

SCANLAB GmbH together with its sister companies Blackbird Robotersysteme GmbH and Holo/Or Ltd. is developing promising new system concepts for laser applications such as laser welding of bipolar plates and additive manufacturing (metal 3D printing). By integrating tailored beam shapers, the novel scan setup showed the potential to nearly double the productivity of welding bipolar plates for hydrogen fuel cells.

Fuel cell technology was considered a niche market for a long time. Due to the transition phase in energy generation and the search for alternative drives, the market demand might grow notably. For efficient mass production an increase of throughput in welding of metal bipolar plates, used to build the stacks in a fuel cell, is needed. High welding speeds require fast scan systems and high power lasers, both available. However, it’s the welding process itself which determines the maximum reachable speed. Weld seam failures such as humping effects and undercut occur when a certain speed limit is exceeded.

Blackbird Robotersysteme set up a test rig integrating the 2D scan head intelliSCAN from SCANLAB and HOLO/OR’s latest development the Flexishaper, a full range adjustable beam shaper. The necessary beam shape was determined based on welding process simulations. The layout of the utilized beam shaper is the result of a combined optical design, integrating both diffractive optical elements (DOE) and scan system. The processing tests demonstrated to shift the speed limit of failure free welding speed from 45 m/min up to 70 m/min.

Adopting processing experience with DOEs
Thin sheet welding of bipolar plates has similar requirements to laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes. Both require scan field sizes up to 500 x 500 mm² with a typical processing speed around 1m/s and below. Also in metal 3D printing the processing speed is not limited by the speed of the scanner or the available laser power, but it is mostly the process itself which limits the throughput. Thus, the encouraging laser welding results are the first step on the way to further optimize LPBF processes as well.

“Our joint company holding creates the trust that is necessary for such a close cooperation to explore innovative solutions. Only in a setup like this you can openly analyze the upcoming market requirements and transfer the outcome in an optical design” recounts Georg Hofner, CEO SCANLAB.

“Our sister companies provide a construction kit for us, which we can translate into tangible benefits for our markets and customers based on our specific experience and application knowledge” adds Karl Christian Messer, CEO Blackbird Robotersysteme.

“This is exactly the kind of cooperation that creates high value products by combining our unique beam shaping expertise with our sister companies market deep understanding” concludes Israel Grossinger, Owner and President of HOLO/OR.

The next steps will be to test the laser welding concept in a larger scale setup and to pursue different applications in parallel. As the fiberSYS meets requirements of both LPBF and laser welding processes, the integration of DOEs into this scan system, particularly suited for multi head laser machines, was included in the development road map.

• Read more about Scan Head with Beam Shaper Increases Throughput in Fuel Cell Production

At the end of 2021, there were 153 semiconductor fabs processing 300mm wafers for the fabrication of ICs, including CMOS image sensors, and non-IC products such as power discretes.

The 300mm wafer fab count increased by 14 in 2021, the most in one year since the same number opened in 2005. There are 10 fabs scheduled to open in 2022, followed by another 13 in 2023 and 10 in 2024. This puts the industry on pace to have more than 200 300mm fab lines in operation by 2026. These are projections made in Knometa’s new Global Wafer Capacity 2022 report.

An increasing number of 300mm fabs are being built to fabricate non-IC devices, and power transistors in particular. The manufacturing cost benefits of processing chips on the large wafers come into play for device types characterized by large die sizes and high volumes. Examples of integrated circuits with these characteristics include DRAMs, flash memory, image sensors, complex logic and microcomponent ICs, PMICs, baseband processors, audio CODECs, and display drivers. While large-size power transistors are still small compared to the die sizes of these ICs, they ship in high volumes and are big enough to keep a 300mm fab loaded at a cost-effective production level. According to IC Insights, unit demand for power transistors in 2021 reached 43.5 billion for power MOSFETs and 2.2 billion for IGBTs.

300mm Wafer Fabs Opening in 2022

• CR Micro (Runxin Microelectronics) fab in Chongqing, China, for power semiconductors
• Silan Microelectronics fab in Xiamen, Fujian, China for power discretes and sensors
• SK Hynix M15 Phase 2 fab in Cheongju, Korea, for 3D NAND flash
• SMIC fab in Shenzhen for foundry services
• ST/Tower joint venture fab in Agrate, Italy, for mixed-signal, power, and RF ICs and foundry services
• TI RFAB2 in Richardson, Texas, USA, for analog ICs
• TSMC Fab 18 Phase 4 in Tainan, Taiwan, for foundry services
• TSMC Fab 16 Phase 2 in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, for foundry services
• TSMC Fab 18 Phase 5 in Tainan, Taiwan, for foundry services
  Winbond fab in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for DRAMs

Of the 10 300mm wafer fabs scheduled to begin operations in 2022, two will be focused on the production of non-IC products. One is a CR Micro fab in Chongqing, China, and the other a fab in Xiamen, China, owned by Silan Microelectronics.

One-third of the new 300mm fabs opening this year are being built by TSMC. Responding to high demand for its foundry services, the company increased its capital spending 74% in 2021 to $30 billion. Much of that spending went toward equipping the Phase 4 and Phase 5 fabs at its Fab 18 campus in Tainan. TSMC is also finishing up a second fab at it Fab 16 site in Nanjing, China, to meet demand for mature technologies, especially 28nm CMOS.

Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics (and its new fab partner Tower Semiconductor) are completing the construction of 300mm fabs targeted at analog and mixed-signal IC production. TI reported a huge increase in capital spending for 2021 with 279% more spent during the year than in 2020. Most of the money was used to buy new equipment for the company’s second fab in Richardson, Texas, and third 300mm fab overall. The RFAB2 facility will more than double wafer capacity at the Richardson site.

Only two of the new 300mm fabs scheduled to open in 2022 are for memory products. SK Hynix is expected to begin operations on a Phase 2 line for 3D NAND at its M15 fab site in Cheongju, Korea, while Winbond plans to start up a new DRAM fab in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

View more information about Global Wafer Capacity 2022 at https://knometa.com/gwc

• Read more about Count of semiconductor fabs using 300mm wafers projected to exceed 200 by 2026

BENEQ, PRESS RELEASE, March 10, 2022, 14.00 EEST

Beneq, the home of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), has introduced BeneqCare, a new modular solution to offer support and maintenance services to organizations that own and operate Beneq ALD equipment.

Beneq leads the market with ALD products for R&D, semiconductor device fabrication, 3D and batch production, ultra-fast spatial ALD (C2R), and roll-to-roll ALD. Today, the company has launched BeneqCare to help customers in the EU, Asia and the USA maximize the value of their ALD tools throughout their equipment’s life cycles.

“We have been investing heavily in widening our service capabilities worldwide. Now, we offer service coverage in all regions. We have also established spare part hubs in every region at Beneq offices,” says Hans Fabritius, Vice President, Life Cycle Services at Beneq.

“BeneqCare simplifies ALD equipment ownership by helping our customers maximize uptime and gain access to the right support at every stage of their tool’s life cycle. We are ready to assist our customers in meeting their productivity requirements –from training personnel in using the equipment to meeting any unscheduled maintenance or spare parts needs,” asserts Fabritius.

BeneqCare provides Beneq customers who operate in the industrial and research sectors with a wide range of service modules to suit their operations, from extended warranty and training services to remote or onsite support.

“Our customers have high expectations for the performance of their Beneq ALD tools. BeneqCare brings them versatile support and service plans that grow with their businesses,” says Fabritius.

Companies and research facilities that have commissioned Beneq ALD equipment can avail of a variety of BeneqCare service modules to suit their unique requirements. Among the BeneqCare modules are technical support services, including remote support via Augmented Reality (AR); spare part services; extended warranties; preventive as well as unscheduled maintenance services; and training.

Learn more about BeneqCare: www.beneq.com/beneqcare/

Further information
Lie Luo, Head of Marketing, [email protected]

About Beneq
Beneq is the home of atomic layer deposition. In 1984, we established the world’s first industrial production using ALD. Today, we lead the market with products for R&D (TFS 200, TFS 500, R2), semiconductor device fabrication (Transform®), 3D and batch production (P400A, P800, P1500), ultra-fast spatial ALD (C2R), and roll-to-roll ALD (Genesis).

Beneq’s unique Development Service simplifies customer adoption and proof-of-concept for new ALD processes, while our Coating Service cuts down time to market by outsourcing state of the art ALD production. Our team of engineers and experts is dedicated to making ALD tools accessible for researchers.

• Read more about Beneq fulfills customer demand for tailored ALD equipment services and support with BeneqCare (TM)