Using new technologies on smaller wafers

Upgrading 200mm equipment with advances made at 300mm is a way to quickly improve yield and capacity.

Written by David Haynes for Semiconductor Engineering | The Internet of Things (IoT) is the thread that connects a wide variety of these market segments. Market research firm IHS predicts that growth in the number of connected devices in the IoT will continue unabated; swelling to 30 billion by 2020.

Impact on IC sales

While sensors are indispensable, the IoT is also about communications and intelligence. It needs microcontrollers, power management ICs, as well as analog and mixed signal chips. The communication systems require RF and MEMS devices, and optoelectronic ICs. The data center for information processing demands more logic, memory and storage as well as silicon photonics.

In the future, a level 5 autonomous car, capable of full autonomy, will not just be dependent on advanced sensors, it will essentially be a self-aware server on wheels.

A recent McClean Report from IC Insights shows the underlying importance of ICs and their fabrication when it reveals IoT and automotive IC end-user markets to be the fastest growing areas over the 2017-2022 period with compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of over 13 percent each. The two markets delivered $20.9 billion and $28 billion, respectively, in IC sales in just 2017…Full story