Grand-slam growth in chip sales

Article Abstract:

The semiconductor experienced an astounding year of growth in 1995. The industry grew at a 41.7% clip during the year and geographic market leadership changed. Japan, which had a 54.3% of sales of the industry's top 20 makers in 1990, dropped to 39.6% of sales from the top 20 vendors. South Korea improved its market position to 13.9% of sales from the 20 chip vendors. The memory market experienced higher prices in the DRAM segment where revenue rose 76.6% reaching $40.9 billion; the SRAM market grew by 61.8%. The microprocessor market grew by 28.2% in 1995; Intel leads this segment with a 34.4% market share and $10.8 billion in sales. Microcontrollers grew by 29.7% in 1995 with 8-bit devices comprising the largest segment with $5.7 billion in sales and 24% market share. LSI Logic became the market leader in custom ICs in 1995, surpassing NEC.

Analysis, Microprocessor, CPUs (Central processing units), Industry trend, Semiconductor memory, Computer memory, Microcontroller, Microcontrollers

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Touring the fab of the future

Article Abstract:

Future semiconductor production plants will become full-automated production facilities owned and operated by a consortium of IC vendors, industry experts say. A fictitious fab handling the complete assembly of revolutionary 0.18 micron, 300-mm wafers for the entire process will cost $2.1 billion in 2001. The main production area will have fewer workers, because technicians will use computers to manage the equipment from remote sites. Standardizing most production equipment software interfaces will allow the fabs to remove employees from the floor. System management will become more complex, because all new plant tools will be designed to load wafers automatically, but the plant's uptime will surpass 90%. The future plant will handle lithography, integrated deposition and etch, photoresist removal and metrology.

Semiconductor Devices, Semiconductor and Related Device Manufacturing, Technology overview

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