Top five churned 2.9 million wafers a month

MARKET RESEARCH firm IC Insights has analysed global wafer capacity and concluded the five top players printing integrated circuits on silicon are Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Toshiba, and UMC.

These top five had combined capacity of 2.9 million wafers a month at the end of 2006, based on eight inch (200mm) wafer sizes.

Half of the world's semi capacity is accounted for by the top 10 with a wide spread across geographies but interestingly pure play foundries UMC and TSMC are the biggest capacity holders. The analysis includes all wafer sizes from the smallest to the largest.

IC Insights reckons that making integrated circuits is now a high stake poker game with people having to slap down $3.5 billion for a new top fab.

The pure play foundries therefore have an interestingly neutral part to play. The report costs $3,985 which of course is rather less than $3.5 billion in anyone's money. µ

L'INQ
IC Insights