Integrated metrology market to double by 2005
By Silicon Strategies
09/08/2003 3:15 PM EST
URL: siliconstrategies.com
NEW TRIPOLI, Penn. -- The integrated metrology market is expected to double over the next three years, growing from $21 million today, to $43 million by 2005, according to a report from The Information Network, a New Tripoli-based market research company.
The integrated non-metal, thin-film market will exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 18.7 percent between 2003 and 2005, according to the report. In contrast, the standalone market will exhibit a rate of only 12.8 percent, according to the report.
That rate will mirror the growth rate for the total semiconductor metrology and inspection market, which was $2.5 billion in 2002 and will reach $2.8 billion in 2003.
While the overall growth for integrated metrology will more than double, large IC companies such as Intel, IBM, TI, and TSMC are not driving the market as they have historically done in terms of process technology, materials, or wafer sizes, according to The Information Network.
Integrated metrology providers are benefiting from OEM relationships. Two providers--Nanometrics Inc. and Nova Measuring Instruments Inc.--have direct OEM relationships with Applied Materials Inc., while Rudolph Technologies Inc. has one with Tokyo Electron Ltd.
While the integrated metrology market is hot, the overall metrology and inspection businesses remain strong. "The recovery has started," said Robert N. Castellano, president of The Information Network, in a statement. "In addition to the large 11.5 percent metrology and inspection market growth, the entire front-end semiconductor equipment market will grow 7.3 percent in 2003," he said.
"The expanded use of (metrology and inspection) tools is assured with the increasing difficulties and higher production cost of semiconductor manufacturing," he said. "Existing fabs continue to upgrade their monitoring capabilities by adding more units to their leading edge fabs. New 300-mm fab construction will account for about 40 percent of sales in the inspection sector," he said.
The wafer defect review/inspection market is the largest sector in this arena, growing 14 percent to $1.4 billion in 2003. KLA-Tencor Inc. led the market with a 56 percent share in 2002.
The thin-film metrology market will grow 16 percent to nearly $400 million in 2003. That sector had been down 42 percent in 2002 to $330 million. The non-metal integrated thin-film sector will exhibit the largest growth rate between 2003 and 2005 at nearly 19 percent compounded annually to reach nearly $43 million in revenues.
The lithography market growth will be impacted through 2006 by high mask costs and decisions to extend 193-nm lithography tools for three instead of two generations. It will grow only 5.9 percent in 2003. |
