S. Korean and Taiwanese Companies Control 56% of Global 300mm Fab Capacity

Information in this Research Bulletin comes from IC Insights’ Global Wafer Capacity 2015-2019 report, which was released this month.  The new report provides great detail regarding the current status and forecast of global wafer fab capacity.  More information found at the end of this bulletin.

South Korean and Taiwanese chip companies are well known for manufacturing prowess when it comes to efficiently fabricating huge amounts of IC wafers.  Most of the IC industry’s biggest fab facilities are located in these two countries.  Because of their fab operation and wafer fabricating expertise, IC companies headquartered in South Korea and Taiwan lead the way in capital-intensive segments of the IC industry such as high-unit-volume products like DRAM and flash memory or foundry services making ICs for companies without fabs and a growing number of companies with fabs.

Figure 1 shows that South Korea-based companies Samsung and SK Hynix currently account for 35% of global 300mm wafer capacity.  Samsung alone controls about 24% of all the world’s 300mm capacity.  When looking at 300mm wafer capacity according to fab location instead of headquarters location, 28% of worldwide capacity is in South Korea.  Samsung and SK Hynix both own big 300mm fabs outside of South Korea.  In fact, SK Hynix’s largest fab is in China.  Samsung also has a 300mm fab in China as well as two in the U.S.



Figure 1

Taiwanese companies currently manage 21% of the world’s 300mm capacity, with about 85% of that capacity being committed to foundry services.  The remaining 15% of Taiwan-controlled 300mm capacity is mostly used to produce memory devices.  The vast majority of the 300mm wafer capacity in Taiwan is owned by Taiwanese companies, with the only exception being the 300mm capacity that U.S.-based Micron gets from its Inotera joint-venture with Nanya and its wholly owned fab in Taichung acquired in 2013.  There is only one Taiwanese-controlled 300mm fab located outside of Taiwan and that is UMC’s fab in Singapore.

Figure 1 also shows that even though 15% of the world’s 300mm wafer capacity is located in the North America, 28% of global 300mm capacity is controlled by companies with North American headquarters.  Two other noticeable share differences in the comparison are in China and the ROW region, which in this case is essentially just Singapore and Israel.  The vast majority of 300mm wafer capacity in China and ROW is controlled by foreign companies.

3 Things for Medical Device OEMs to looking for EMS partner

Medical device OEMs can benefit from working with EMS partners with the technology expertise to start up new manufacturing lines quickly, perform final testing, and ensure that products meet appropriate standards. How to choose a proper EMS partners for you? Below is some tips

a. Technology expertise

When introducing a new product, the OEM should also consider a contract manufacturing company that maintains an engineering support staff. An experienced supplier’s engineering team can implement small changes to the design of a product or the manufacturing process, helping to reduce costs without erecting regulatory hurdles.

b. quality systems

It is important for EMS providers to have experience performing final device testing, since testing can be technically challenging and the consequences significant if it is not performed correctly. Testing experience could include burn-in testing for electrosurgery devices or wet QC tests for IVD instruments

c. Certificates

Full-service EMS suppliers, which provide engineering as well as manufacturing of finished products, should be aware of the IEC 60601-1 third-edition testing standard. Upon bringing this change to the medical device OEM’s attention, the contract manufacturer should be able to help the OEM to understand the third-edition documentation and testing required to receive a CE mark. For laboratory instruments, IEC 61010-1 third edition has been required.

Are there any other factors that you can think about for choosing a EMS partner?

Hampoo Reached Strategic Cooperation with Erelcn to advance one stop EMS platform

On Oct. 10^th, Hampoo(Hampoo Science & Technology Co., Ltd), a global Electronic Manufacturing Service(EMS) Provider, reached Strategic cooperation and signed agreement with Erelcn (Shenzhen Erelcn Technology Development Co., Ltd), to build a one-stop electronic product technical service platform with high quality and high standard together. This signing of agreement means both will conduct a comprehensive, deeply level and multiple channels strategic cooperation in all area, like business promotion, product quality, project management etc.

According to contract agreement, combined Hampoo rich resources and high standard in pcb design, manufacturing platform for electronic products with Erelcn years of advanced technology and practical experience in electronic reliability engineering field, both company will continuously strength cooperation to build a one-stop technical service platform with high quality for electronic products. They aimed to satisfied customer by providing one-stop end to end project outsourcing requirements from products requirements, engineering design, product testing, component selection, parts sourcing, manufacturing& assembly, helping to save cost, optimizing the resource assignment, and offer reliable quality assurance.

The CEO of Erelcn have spoken highly of hampoo leading pcb design and technique at the signing ceremony. He also said that Hampoo EMS manufacturing platform will be the production base of Erelcn in the future. Erelcn is willing to hold hands with hampoo to promote electronic reliability engineering technique and product quality for domestic electronic enterprises constantly.

“Hampoo will enhance his production reliability continuously by the help of Erelcn experience in reliability engineering area, meanwhile, Hampoo will supply related value-added service in this area for general customers. Achieve the company philosophy “Focus on service, win the future with quality” truly.” Hampoo vice president, Weidong Zhao said. 

The agreement of strategic partnership for Hampoo and Erelcn was powerful alliances, complementary advantages. On the strength of Erelcn experiences in reliability design, failure analysis, reliability testing, material reliability, production reliability etc, Hampoo will provide one-stop service with higher quality, including pcb design, pcb fabrication, parts souring, PCBA and so on, lower cost, reduce mistakes, promote product quality for customer.