Who Is Building and Will Build 300 mm Fabs?

The avalanche is still rolling. We expect an additional 21 new 300 mm fabs to come online in 2007. This will add an additional 670,000 pizza-sized wafers a month to the industry's capacity. Moreover, between 2008 and 2013, the industry should have an additional 39 300 mm fabs on the drawing board. The actual number will be much higher. Samsung, the industry's largest memory manufacturer, for example, has announced plans for as many as 11 new fabs that are scheduled to come online through 2013.

300 mm capacity by company, product type

While Intel may be the No. 1 company in terms of semiconductor revenues, it is in second place behind Samsung for 300 mm capacity currently online. Samsung has only six 300 mm fabs online, but the total capacity of these fabs exceeds 200,000 wafers a month. Intel's fabs, by contrast, have a capacity of 160,000 wafers a month by our estimate.

Samsung also has more capacity under construction or being equipped than any other chip company. It is closely followed by Powerchip, which has almost as much capacity under construction as Samsung. Toshiba, through its Flash Alliance joint venture with SanDisk, is currently constructing another 100,000 300 mm wafer capacity fab in Japan.

Micron is building a tremendous amount of new capacity. The company is currently finishing converting its 200 mm fab in Singapore, TECH Semiconductor, to 300 mm, as well as equipping two IM Flash fabs in the United States (IM Flash is the company's joint venture with Intel).

Most of the 300 mm capacity, either online or under construction, is for memory. Memory accounts for three out of four 300 mm wafers currently under construction. The 300 mm fabs under construction now or currently being equipped will eventually be capable of producing almost an additional one million wafers a month. This represents an increase of 63% over the 300 mm capacity currently online.

Beyond 2007

The 300 mm fabs that will come online next year are already well on their way to production. By and large, construction has started on these fabs and equipment is already ordered, if not beginning to be installed.

However, this is not the case for the overwhelming majority of those fabs planning to begin construction after 2007. For both fab builders and equipment vendors, these fabs are still in play. Our 300 mm report currently lists 39 new 300 mm fabs scheduled to come online after 2007. Thirty-five of these fabs will come online by the end of 2010. The capacity of these fabs is greater than all of the 300 mm capacity currently online. Indeed, the capacity of those Samsung fabs that the company has announced plans for, but not yet begun construction on, is almost as great as the company's current 300 mm capacity plus that currently under construction or being equipped (Figure).

Top companies are listed in order of planned vs. online, under construction or equipping for 300 mm capacity.

In both good and bad years the semiconductor industry, like a good farmer sowing seeds, brings new fabs online. If the weather is severe and business conditions adverse, then chip manufacturers will only sparsely populate the fab with equipment. But in most cases, they will bring some equipment in, qualify it and begin some production so that it will be ready to ramp when business conditions improve. The equipment vendors and fab builders who will profit most from these yearly crops of new fabs, especially 300 mm fabs, are those who are doing their spadework now.