Julian West

Sales of abatement systems for semiconductor applications grew 15.6% in 2019, significantly outperforming other critical subsystems segments in a year where total critical subsystems revenues declined by 10.6%.

VLSI research released the list of top suppliers of critical subsystems to the semiconductor and related manufacturing industries. The data shows EUV adoption greatly benefited optical subsystems suppliers in 2019 as other critical subsystem suppliers battled through the tail end of the downturn.

Critical subsystems technologies for semiconductor applications are highly engineered and specialized pieces of equipment. Only a select group of companies are able to produce these products to the high specifications demanded by the semiconductor industry and in the volume required.

The market for chillers and heat exchangers used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment has more than doubled since 2014 and is expected to reach a total value of $383 million in 2019.

In March, the decline in week-over-year chip sales appeared to be slowing, providing a glimmer of hope for the beginning of a new cycle. However, the recent rapid escalation of the tariff war between the U.S. and China heaped more uncertainty on the industry and visibility continues to remain low. 

Critical subsystems for the IC equipment market continued to grow to a new record of $11 billion in 2018. While 2019 is expected to be a downturn year, the long-term outlook remains unchanged with an average growth rate of 3 percent.  Last year may have been a new high for revenues, but it...

Orders for critical subsystems evaporated in the second half of 2018 after a very strong start to the year. Subsystems suppliers have been left with depleted order books after OEMs accumulated large inventories as the market for wafer fab equipment cooled off. Although overall critical subsystems...

Process power and reactive gas subsystems for semiconductor manufacturing equipment have grown at a CAGR of 21% since 2013. The segment growth is considerably above the critical subsystems industry average of 9.5% and is attributable to higher demand for vacuum processing equipment over the...

Years of industry consolidation in the critical subsystems market appears to be coming to an end.The top 10 suppliers’ share of the critical subsystems market has stabilised at around 50 percent after many years of industry consolidation. Through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth,...