Total worldwide installed capacity for MEMS and sensors fabs is forecast to grow 25% to 4.7 million 200mm equivalent wafers per month from 2018 to 2023, driven by explosive demand across communications, transportation, medical, mobile, industrial and other IoT applications, according to SEMI.
MEMS fabs will account for 46% of all MEMS and sensors facilities by 2023, while image sensors fabs will represent 40% of the total, SEMI indicated. Other fabs - those producing both MEMS and image sensors - will take up the remaining 14%.
Japan led the world in MEMS and sensors capacity in 2018, followed by Taiwan, the Americas, and Europe/Mideast, SEMI said. 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.
Fab equipment investments are expected to hover at about US$4 billion per year from 2018 to 2023, with most of the spending - an estimated 70% - 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, SEMI said.
SEMI said 14 new device volume fabs will be added from 2018 to 2023 for MEMS and sensors made on wafers ranging from eight inches to 12 inches in size. China shows the largest increase in new volume fabs followed by Japan, Taiwan and Europe, SEMI said.
