Wafer Processing Equipment Global Market Report 2022

Major players in the wafer processing equipment market are Lam Research Corporation, Tokyo Electron Limited, Applied Materials Inc, SPTS Technologies Limited, Plasma-Therm LLC, Disco Corporation, Tokyo Seimitsu Co Ltd. (Accretech), Motorola Solutions Inc, KLA-Tencor Corporation, and Hitachi Kokusai Electronic Inc.

The global wafer processing equipment market is expected to grow from $126.26 billion in 2021 to $136.14 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8%. The market is expected to grow to $183.22 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7%.

The wafer processing equipment market consists of sales of wafer processing equipment by entities (organizations, sole traders, or partnerships) that are engaged in manufacturing wafer processing equipment used for processing wafer, which is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si), used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included.

The main types in the wafer processing equipment are oxidation systems, diffusion systems, epitaxial reactors, photolithography equipment, and other types.The oxidation systems in wafer processing equipment refer to the formation of silicon dioxide and are exposed to an oxidizing environment.

The various applications include MEMS, RFID, CMOS image sensor, and other applications. These are used by medical, military, solar, industrial, and other end users.

Asia Pacific was the largest region in the wafer processing equipment market in 2021.Western Europe was the second-largest region in the wafer processing equipment market.

The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.

Increasing demand for consumer electronic devices is expected to boost the growth of the wafer processing equipment market.An increase in the demand for electronic products has raised customer expectations regarding improved characteristics of new electronic devices.

Several consumer electronics and identity solutions including identification tags, smart cards, and more are combined with RFIDs and use wafers for the fabrication of integrated circuits.There is an increasing demand for these ultra-smooth surfaces and thinner wafers by customers for smooth incorporation into electronic devices.

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) market value was $ 10.93 billion in 2019 and is predicted to double to reach $21.18 billion by the end of 2025. In addition to this, rising utilization and consumption of consumer electronic devices are likely to fuel the demand for semiconductors which in turn is expected to propel the revenues for the wafer processing equipment market during the forecast period.

Huge investment requirements for semiconductor manufacturing are expected to limit the market growth.High investment need is the biggest challenge in setting up semiconductor fab units.

The initial investment for setting up a semiconductor fabs unit is around $8 billion and is likely to grow further in the coming years.Moreover, high maintenance and continuous technology up-gradation add to the extra cost, acting as a major constraint for setting up the semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

This scenario is anticipated to hinder the demand for wafer processing equipment from the semiconductor industry.

Growing demand for miniaturized wafers with the improved performance of devices is a leading trend in the wafer processing equipment market.Semiconductor substrates such as wafers are thinned down to final thicknesses of tens of µm.

Most of the semiconductor wafers such as those used in memory, CIS, and power applications are thinned down to 100 µm-200 µm.Further thickness reduction with the necessity to maximize memory capacity of single packages, improved data transfer rates, power consumption mostly fuelled by mobile applications is required in the case of memory devices.

Standard memory devices such as 2D NAND/DRAM use silicon wafers that are thicker than 200 µm.By 2025, 3D stacked DRAM thickness is expected to keep reducing from 50 µm - 30 µm thick silicon substrates.

Currently, BSI CIS wafers are the thinnest wafers across all applications with a thickness below 10 µm. Thus, ultra-smooth surfaces and thinner wafers for incorporation into the devices are continuously gaining popularity in recent years.

In 2019, Applied Materials, Inc. a USA-based provider of equipment, services, and software for the manufacturing of semiconductors acquired Kokusai Electric Corporation for $2.2 billion. With the acquisition of Kokusai Electric Corporation, Applied Materials, Inc. plans to expand the company’s portfolio in single-wafer processing systems, with technology and manufacturing centers in Tokyo, Cheonan, Korea, Toyama, and Japan. Kokusai Electric Corporation is a Japan-based manufacturer of semiconductor equipment and is engaged in providing services for memory, foundry, and logic customers.

The countries covered in the wafer processing equipment market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA.