Year-on-year that represented a 13.2% drop from the 3,265 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, according to new figures from the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG).
“The continuing decline in IC fab utilisation and inventory adjustment led to negative growth across all wafer sizes in Q1 2024, with polished wafer shipments falling slightly more year-over-year than EPI wafer shipments,” said Lee Chungwei, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President and Chief Auditor at GlobalWafers. “Notably, utilisation by some fabs bottomed out in Q4 2023 as growing AI adoption fuelled rising demand for advanced node logic products and memory for data centres.”
Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for the majority of semiconductors, which are vital components of all electronic devices. The highly engineered thin disks are produced in diameters of up to 12 inches and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductors are fabricated.
The SMG is a sub-committee of the SEMI Electronic Materials Group (EMG) and is open to SEMI members involved in manufacturing polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon or silicon wafers (e.g., as cut, polished, epi).
