8-inch wafer foundry capacity has been tight since the end of 2019, and there are still no signs of relief, and even more and more severe, the world and UMC have confirmed the price increase news, and said that orders will be full to 2021. In the past, 8-inch wafer foundry was regarded as backward and old production line, what is the reason, but now it can allow customers to hold cash and raise prices, but also to grab 8-inch production capacity? This article gives readers a look at the layout and strategy of major Taiwanese manufacturers in the 8-inch market.
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What's the difference between 8-inch and 12-inch wafers?
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The surface area of the two sizes of wafers is different, with the same yield standard to make assumptions, 12 inches about a piece can produce more than 200 IC, is twice the 8 inches, in the production cost does not need to be greatly increased which much, more cost-effective. But also because the number of ics produced by a 12-inch piece is relatively large, corresponding to the terminal demand, it is also necessary to have enough shipments to support, which is also the reason why many manufacturers will stay at 8 inches, some small and medium-sized IC design factories may need only about dozens of pieces, to redesign the span to 12 inches may not be advantageous.
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In terms of IC type, it is roughly divided, including power management IC, driver IC, fingerprint recognition IC, CMOS, MosFET, power components and other main components in 8-inch wafers; The 12-inch production is mostly below 90nm process, requiring high-efficiency, high-speed computing products, including CPU, GPU, mobile phone AP and communication chips.
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Why is demand in short supply?
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5G, remote business opportunities catalyzed the explosion of 8-inch demand. Fang Liu, chairman of the World Advanced, believes that compared with 2017, this time there are \"structural\" changes, including the demand driven by lifestyle changes, as well as the demand for semiconductors driven by smart phones and 5G, especially the consumption of power management ics is very large, and the demand from vehicles is not high. The company is expected to maintain high capacity utilization levels until the first half of 2021, and is optimistic that these structural changes will support medium - and long-term demand for 8-inch foundry.
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Part of the 8-inch equipment is discontinued, and the equipment is not easy to obtain. The number of 8-inch plants worldwide peaked in 2007, after which many plants closed or converted to 12-inch plants. Because 12-inch is still the mainstream wafer size, many equipment manufacturers have stopped producing some 8-inch machines, and the equipment is not easy to obtain, which is also one of the reasons why 8-inch factories are difficult to expand their production capacity.
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According to SEMI statistics, the foundry capacity of 8-inch wafers in 2020 is about 6 million pieces, and the growth will increase to 6.5 million pieces by 2022, with a compound growth of 8%.
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According to SEMI statistics, 12-inch fab investment in 2020 grew 13% from last year, hitting a record high in the past year, and is expected to hit another peak in 2023.
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China Taiwan 8-inch equipment supply
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At present, the plant also has the ability to make 8-inch equipment, mainly specializing in the field of semiconductor wet processing.
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Although the demand for 8-inch foundry is quite strong, it is not preferable to build a new factory directly. According to the past statistics, the investment in an 8-inch factory needs about 800 to 1 billion US dollars, which is converted to a level of about tens of billions of Taiwan dollars, compared with other industry depreciation has already finished, and it will lose a lot in the competition. Therefore, it is relatively beneficial for the industry to improve production efficiency, purchase used equipment (or change machines) and mergers and acquisitions. However, the good target is difficult to find, coupled with the limited supply of equipment, 8-inch production capacity is still unable to increase rapidly.
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How does IC design respond?
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\"It's a seller's market, and that's never happened before.\" IC design factory senior frankly. So far this year, the demand for 8-inch wafers has increased significantly, gradually showing a tight trend, and even the fourth quarter of this year is tighter than the third quarter. At present, for almost all the production capacity, the foundry can only provide 90% of this year's volume, and the price is increased by 1-2 percent, and will be implemented on January 1 next year.
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Solution 1: Add a new partner in Taiwan, get the quantity first
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Most IC designers began to seek more suppliers to meet the challenge, such as Yilong in the past most of the chip to UMC, but from this year's new chip to TSMC, starting shipments in November, the third foundry will also start to supply in the second half of next year, applied to fingerprint recognition, LTDDI (with pen function drive and touch chip), so actively expand partners under, So that the total output of Yilong next year, there is a chance to increase by about 20% compared with this year.
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Some manufacturers operate against the trend, when the Chinese chip designer fled to Taiwan, some of the products will be cast into the Chinese foundry, not only good coordination, but also more direct supply to the local supply chain, although more risky, but the price and quantity are more cost advantages.
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Solution 3: Turn 12 inches?
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The answer from most manufacturers is \"of course not.\" For large IC designers, due to the economic scale, the cost of the 12-inch mask is easily shared, so it is already the norm; But for small and medium-sized manufacturers, the biggest challenge is that the cost of the mask is really high, a mask will be tens of millions, how long can it be amortized to start making profits? This is not in line with cost considerations in mature consumer chips.
Comparing the size of 12 \"and 8\
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The conversion relationship between inch and centimeter is known to be 1 inch =3.33 cm;
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That is 12 inches x 3.33 cm =39.96 cm
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8 \"x 3.33 cm =26.64 cm
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39.96 cm is larger than 26.64 cm
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So 12 inches is bigger than 8 inches
8 inch cake, about 20 cm in diameter; 12 inches is about 30CM.
Originally the cake is round, cake shop cakes are also \"inch\" as a unit, cake \"inch\" refers to the inch, which cake inch (inch) and centimeter conversion relationship is: 1 (inch) inch =2.54CM. So:
8-inch cake, standard size =8*2.54CM=20.32CM;
For a 12-inch cake, standard size =12*2.54CM=30.48CM.