Semiconductor production chain in the second off-season is not weak, not only 12-inch factory capacity is insufficient, 8-inch factory also unexpectedly tight capacity! Including TSMC, Unicom and the world's advanced manufacturers, orders for 8-inch factories have been rapidly refluxed in recent years. The initial estimate of capacity utilization rate has risen to more than 90% in May, and even a shortage of capacity has appeared in June.
It is pointed out that the pull-in effect of chips before the launch of Intel Haswell processor platform, the demand for LCD driver IC driven by 4K2K panel and mobile devices, the shift of power management IC from 6-inch to 8-inch chip delivery, and the extensive use of micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) components in mobile devices are the four main reasons for the shortage of capacity in 8-inch factories.
Intel will launch Haswell processors in early June, with many changes to the new platform, including the first use of photosensitive IC. As the new wafer specifications are all processed by 8 inch wafer maturation process, the backup effect has brought urgent orders for 8 inch wafers.
In the 2nd quarter of panel factory, 4K2K super high-quality large-size panels were delivered in volume. Because of the narrow frame design, LCD driver IC used twice as much as HD panels of the same size. Including Lianyong, Miracle, Ruiding and other industries, all of them recently expanded their production. The high-pressure capacity of TSMC, world-advanced, Lianyuan and MEGACRYSTAL has been fully loaded in mid-April. By the middle of the third season.
In addition, the competition in power management IC market is fierce. International IDM factories cut prices and grab orders. In order to reduce costs, domestic analogous IC factories, such as Ligong, Zhixin and Maoda, have shifted their product lines from 6-inch factories to 8-inch factories. For domestic wafer generation factories, 8-inch factories have not built too much analog and mixed-signal process capacity, analog IC factories are turning to 8-inch factories for production, of course, the capacity will be in short supply.
Recently, mobile devices have been brought into many innovative applications. A large number of micro-electro-mechanical components, such as gyroscopes and microphones, as well as new fingerprint identification IC introduced by Apple, have been put into production in a mature process of 0.25-0.35 micron from 8-inch factory, which also consumes a large number of 8-inch factory capacity.
