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The global semiconductor foundry market totalled $34.6 billion in 2012, a 16.2 per cent increase from 2011, according to a study by Gartner.
The increase in foundry business was attributed to the restocking of inventory by customers, along with the increased demand for smartphones, in which wafers for advanced technology are required.
“2012 was the first year that the semiconductor revenue for mobile devices surpassed that of personal computers and notebooks,” said Samuel Wang, Research Vice-President at Gartner.
“It also marked the first year that advanced technology for mobile applications drove the foundry revenue. Furthermore, 2012 saw not only major foundries improve the yield of 28 nanometre (nm) technology, but also many foundries fine-tuned the device performance of legacy nodes,” Wang added.
Advanced tech nodes
TSMC maintained its number one spot due to its success of advanced technology nodes.
Strong performance on 32-nm yields and the availability of sub-45-nm wafer capacity at the Dresden, Germany, fabs allowed Globalfoundries to advance to the second slot, while UMC’s market share decreased due to reduced wafer shipments.
Driven by the wafers consumed by Apple's A6 and A6X chips, Samsung moved up four spots to the No. 5 position with 175.5 per cent growth in 2012.
Wafer capacity
During the second-half of 2012, foundries performed better than the seasonal norm due to the need for 40-nm wafers as a result of the unexpected fast rise of low-cost smartphones in China and other emerging countries.
These foundries with sufficient wafer capacity and a good yield of 40-nm and 28-nm technologies have achieved solid revenue growth.
In 2012, most foundries reported an increase in revenue from fabless customers, while the percentage of revenue contribution by integrated device manufacturer (IDM) customers was flat or even declined, indicating that the chips for mobile devices have been supplied primarily by the fabless companies.
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