This is a rebound from a 2.5 percent annual decline in 2012 driven mainly by strong growth in DRAM and NAND flash memory markets, the market research firm said. These are expected to rise by 35.0 and 27.7 percent respectively in 2013. This has helped Micron increase its sales by 109.2 percent and propelled the company from tenth ranked global chip vendor in 2012 up to No. 4 in 2013.
Memory demand for smartphones and tablet computers has ensured solid pricing causing revenue for memory devices to surgeA transient variation in the current and/or potential at a point in the circuit.. Without their expanded contribution semiconductor sector would have shown zero growth in 2013, IHS said.
SK Hynix also did well in 2013 expanding sales by 48.7 percent. Micron’s larger growth was also driven by its acquisition of Elpida Memory Inc.
When examined by market sector the global chip market is being driven by wireless and semiconductor revenue from wireless communications products are projected to have grown by 11.7 percent in 2013. The industrial electronics sector will also achieve double-digit semiconductor sales growth of 10.7 percent. Meanwhile, semiconductor revenues driven by traditional consumer electronics products will decline, with a drop of 5.2 percent.
Beyond the DRAM and NAND segments, other products that will yield healthy growth in 2013 are expected to be LEDs with 9.5 percent, CMOS image sensors at 5.7 percent, standard logic up by 4.2 percent, sensors and actuators by 3.6 percent and analog application-specific integrated circuits with 3.5 percent.
Markets experiencing significant declines will be CCD image sensors, which are expected to plunge by 40.6 percent; specialty memory, with a 19.6 percent drop; digital signal processors, down by 16.5 percent; SRAM declining by 15.9 percent; NOR flash memory falling by 14.8 percent and logic ASICs, with an 11.6 percent decrease.
