Back-end segment and the wafer-level packaging (WLP)-related segments ruled the semiconductor market during the year
Global semiconductor capex on manufacturing equipment declined 16.1% during 2012 to $37.8bn compared to 2011, according to a new report from Gartner.
Wafer-level manufacturing also declined in 2012, mainly due to weakness in lithography and deposition, according to the report.
Gartner managing vice president Klaus-Dieter Rinnen said continued over supply in DRAM and the shift to NAND into over supply led to a reduced need for capacity.
"Memory manufacturing-related purchases declined significantly," Rinnen said.
"Logic-related spending provided only a weak counterforce, impacted by slowing overall semiconductor device demand in the second half of 2012 and bulging inventories.
"Consequently, manufacturing equipment sales realised a declining quarterly pattern, starting in the second quarter through the end of the year."
During the year, Applied Materials topped the list of global semiconductor manufacturing equipment vendors, followed by ASML, Tokyo Electron and Lam Research.
"Notable is the further rise of the sales share of the top 10 vendors, now approaching 70 percent, compared with 61 percent in 2008," Rinnen added.
"The advance of these large players symbolises losses of smaller players in the competitive race and an increasing market dependence on a few vendors in the equipment market."
Gartner revealed that the back-end segment, and mainly the wafer-level packaging (WLP)-related segments ruled the semiconductor market during the year.
The segment was supported by the relative strength of logic investments, including advanced RF or system-on-chip (SoC) test equipment, or to the rise in popularity of bump, flip-chip and other WLP processes that include stud bump bonding and wafer bonders for through-silicon vias (TSVs).
The process control segments performed better than the overall wafer fab equipment market as firms increased production at the 32/28 nm node and required rise in inspection and defect review tools to examine increasingly complex processes.
In 2012, the e-beam patterned wafer inspection reported highest implementations within the process control segments.
