Global MEMS and Sensors Fab Capacity to Grow 25% Thru 2025, SEMI Reports

MILPITAS, Calif. —Total worldwide installed capacity for MEMS and sensors fabs is forecast to grow 25 percent to 4.7 million wafers* per month from 2018 to 2023, driven by explosive demand across communications, transportation, medical, mobile, industrial and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications, according to the new MEMS & Sensors Fab Report to 2023 published by SEMI.

Listing more than 230 companies with over 400 facilities, the report is the first of its kind focused on MEMS and sensors front end facilities. The report, spanning the 12 years starting in 2012, predicts that MEMS fabs will account for 46 percent of all MEMS and sensors facilities by 2023. Image sensors fabs will represent 40 percent of the total, and other fabs – those producing both MEMS and image sensors – the remaining 14 percent.

Figure 1: Installed capacity and MEMS and sensors fab counts

Japan led the world in MEMS and sensors capacity in 2018, followed by Taiwan, the Americas, and Europe/Mideast. China is on track to rise from the sixth position this year to the third largest region in installed capacity by 2023. Japan and Taiwan are expected to maintain the top two positions through 2023.

The MEMS and Sensors Fab Report to 2023 shows fab equipment investments hovering at about US$4 billion per year from 2018 to 2023, with most of the spending – an estimated 70 percent – devoted to fabs for image sensors made on 300mm wafer sizes. During the same period, Japan’s fab equipment investment is expected to peak at nearly US$2 billion in 2020, with Taiwan topping out at US$1.6 billion in 2023.

All told, 14 new device volume fabs will be added from 2018 to 2023** for MEMS and sensors made on wafers ranging from 8 inches to 12 inches in size. China shows the largest increase in new volume fabs followed by Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

The MEMS & Sensors Fab Report to 2023 includes details on individual fabs such as location, technologies and products, as well as quarterly data from 2012 to 2023 for the following:

• Construction and equipment investments
• Installed capacities
• Wafer sizes
• Process nodes

SEMI Industry Research and Statistics developed the MEMS & Sensors Fab Report to 2023 in collaboration with the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner. To learn more about the MEMS & Sensors Fab Report to 2023, click here.

*200mm equivalent capacity – excludes R&D, Pilot and EPI lines

**Excludes R&D, Pilot and EPI lines and fabs with low probabilities of being built