Momentum behind the push to transition the semiconductor industry to 450mm wafers--which seemed substantial just a few short years ago--now appears all but dead, at least for now.

“450 is probably dead for another five to 10 years,” said G. Dan Hutcheson, a veteran semiconductor equipment analyst who is chairman and CEO of VLSI Research Inc. “It may come back, depending on whether there can be consensus among semiconductor equipment companies.”

The Global 450 Consortium (G450C)--a joint R&D program that involved Intel, TSMC, Globalfoundries, IBM, Samsung, the SUNY Polytechnic Institute--quietly wound down its work at the end of last year with member companies concluding that the timing was not right for an optional Phase 2.

“All the partners agreed that it’s not the right time to continue to focus on 450,” said Paul Kelly, associate vice president for consortia and initiatives at SUNY Poly, in an interview with EE Times. “But everyone walked away saying that the G450 program itself was a success.”

At the recent Industry Strategy Symposium from semiconductor equipment and materials trade group SEMI, barely a whisper was heard about 450mm wafers.

A few years ago, major chip makers including the G450 members were pushing for 450mm equipment to be available to equip fabs as soon as next year. But, according to Hutcheson, a major hurdle to the movement has been chip equipment makers, still smarting from the transition to 300mm in the early 2000s. He said the push to larger wafers at that time dramatically reduced unit demand, hurting the equipment makers’ businesses.

“The equipment companies generally don’t want [450mm] after what happened with 300mm,” Hutcheson said.

Hutcheson added that the initial push for 450mm came from a belief that chip makers needed an alternative way to increase sales if the industry could no longer keep on pace with Moore’s Law. But, Moore’s Law “clearly has not ended,” Hutcheson said. “What happened is that the shrinks have slowed down the growth of the silicon.”

By: DocMemory
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