Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased 7.1% quarter-over-quarter to 3,035 million square inches (MSI) in the second quarter of 2024 but saw an 8.9% decline from the 3,331 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
“The silicon wafer market is recovering driven by strong demand related to products for data centers and generative AI,” said Lee Chungwei (李崇偉), Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President and Chief Auditor at GlobalWafers. “While the recovery is uneven across different applications, 300mm wafer Q2 shipments indicated 8% quarter-over-quarter growth for the best performance among all wafer sizes. There are a growing number of new semiconductor fabs under construction or ramping production volume. This expansion, along with the longer-term trend toward a $1 trillion semiconductor market, will inevitably require more silicon wafers.”
Data cited in this release include polished silicon wafers, including those used as virgin test wafers, as well as epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to end users.
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). The SMG facilitates collective efforts on issues related to the silicon industry including the development of market information and statistics about the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.
