300mm semiconductor processing tools reached 82% of front-end equipment in 2006
Competitive spending by semiconductor manufacturers on copper and 300mm programs resulted in growth of 300mm front-end equipment reaching 82% of all front-end equipment in 2006, according to the recently published 300mm/Copper/Low-K Convergence report by The Information Network.
"In 2006 we saw a 41% growth in the 300mm equipment market, well above the total market value of the front-end sector of processing equipment of 24%," notes Dr. Robert N. Castellano, President of The Information Network. "300mm revenues will increase to represent 88% of front-end equipment revenues in 2007."
The market includes CMP, CVD, PVD, Etch, Implant, Lithography, Metrology, Resist track, RTP/diffusion, and Strip/clean. The lithography sector was the largest, representing a 24.3% market share of total revenues in 2006. The 300mm market reached $22.5 billion in 2006, and is projected to increase to $24.1 billion in 2007.
In the copper damascene market, front-end equipment grew to 9.6% of total equipment sales in 2006, and is forecast to reach 12.7% in 2007. The conversion to copper damascene by DRAM and Flash manufacturers will be key to the growth of the copper market. While Micron Technology has converted to copper interconnects, other DRAM manufacturers will start migrating to copper in late 2007 or early 2008.
"The spin-on the low-k dielectric market is essentially dead, as market momentum has shifted to CVD techniques," added Dr. Castellano. "While the intrinsic advantage of spin-on is the porosity of the film advances by equipment suppliers Novellus, Applied Materials, ASM, and others has enhanced the properties of CVD low-k films."
