Below 40 NANO pure foundry market in boom
Park Jung Il | comja77@ | 2017-09-25 10:36:51

AI, and IoT-related low-power systems As the demand for semiconductors grows, the foundry market of 40nm (nanometer) or less is growing rapidly. Samsung Electronics is pushing for a roadmap to broaden the scope of its microprocessing, while SK Hynix is concentrating on acquiring customers after the foundry spin-off, which is why the domestic foundry industry will grow in size.

According to market researcher IC Insights, a net foundry market of less than 40nm this year is expected to reach $ 21.5 billion (about 24.5 trillion won), up 18% from last year. This is far more than the overall foundry market growth of 7%.

Pure foundry companies mean companies that do not produce other semiconductors, such as memory semiconductors, but only consignment production. Samsung Electronics and Intel are directly involved in making semiconductors, so they are excluded from pure foundry companies.

IC Insights is 7 times more than global foundries, UMC and SIMC, which are 2nd ~ 4th place in TSMC, which is the first pure foundry market in 40nm or less market, and 10% "He said.

In fact, SMIC, which is fourth in the list, is known to have a difference in fine processing technology from TSMC by about three years. Currently, only TSMC, Samsung Electronics, global foundries and Intel are able to do 10nm fab foundry.

In the industry, growth in demand for low-power, high-performance system semiconductors for smartphones and other devices, including AI and IOT, is a growth driver. According to a survey of market researcher Strategy Analytics (SA), 41% of respondents said that their lives would be better with security and privacy issues.

Considering this market environment, Samsung Electronics has separated the foundry from the system LSI business division in May, and has opened a forum in the US, Japan, and Korea to actively promote its competitiveness. A Samsung representative said, "We are getting a good response by introducing diverse spectrum including a microprocessing roadmap from 11nm to 4nm and a low-power solution using M RAM in insulator (FD-SOI) process."

SK Hynix officials also said that after the foundry business was blown up, the number of customers rose more than twice as much as last year and that the factory utilization rate has also climbed to 100%. However, he added, "We are still watching the market for whether to apply 40nm process or less.

An industry observer said, "It took more than 10 years for Samsung to build up the foundry business as it is now." SK Hynix will also be able to grow with a long-term outlook with bold investment. "

By Park Jung Il comja77@


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