Power foundries see boost in top ten
These foundries have made progresses on the development of third-generation wide bandgap semiconductors according to the latest report from Trendforce. The report points to VIS as the first foundry in the world to provide foundry service on 200mm GaN-on-Silicon wafers, while X-Fab, which has entered the top ten for the first time, has integrated SiC to its 150mm wafer fab with a monthly capacity of 30,000 pieces. Taiwan-based Episil Technologies is also actively developing its foundry service of SiC and GaN wafers.
Rising demand for 200mm capacity is driving up prices says Trendforce. VIS and Hua Hong Semiconductor are expected to record revenue growths of 15.1% and 13.5% respectively while X-Fab is expected to benefit from industrial and automotive markets, recording a slight growth of 4.6% in 1H18.
Samsung, ranking the fourth largest foundry, is actively promoting its Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) service among potential clients, exploring new possibilities of cooperation. SMIC, ranking the fifth, is improving the yield of its 28nm process. Manufacturing on other processes with mature yield remains the major driver for the revenue growth of SMIC, who has been continuously receiving orders from domestic customers in China.
TowerJazz has been adjusting its product mix to increase the share of high-profit products but this has led to lower-than-expected revenue in the first half of the year, a decrease by 4% over the same period last year. Powerchip has benefited from growing orders and staged remarkable performance, with an estimated revenue growth of 27.1% over the same period last year.
Overall the weakening demand for high end smartphone applications processors is leading to slower revenue growth of 7.7% year-on-year to reach US$29.06bn. TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and UMC are expected to take first, second, and third places respectively. TSMC dominates with a market share of over 56%.
Details of the report are at www.trendforce.com
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