GSA survey reports climbing wafer prices

LONDON – The price of wafers fabricated at foundries jumped by 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, turning round a falling trend seen in the previous two quarters of 2010, according to a survey conducted by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA).

Median pricing for both 200-mm and 300-mm diameter production CMOS wafers increased by about 5 percent quarter-over-quarter. This took production 300-mm wafers to $3,211 per wafer and 200-mm production wafers to $821 per wafer, according to GSA. In contrast, median pricing for 150-mm production CMOS wafers decreased by 53.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to $338.

Median pricing for 300-mm production CMOS wafers also increased 10.8 percent year-over-year, while median pricing decreased 1.7 and 32.5 percent for 200-mm and 150-mm diameter wafers, respectively.

In a similar manner to wafers, survey participants reported that after decreasing for two consecutive quarters there was a sequential increase in the median mask set cost for 200-mm CMOS wafers. Participants indicated that the median cost, at $79,200 increased 21 percent QoQ and 20 percent YoY. Mask sets for 300-mm wafers had a median cost of $510,000, a decrease of 1.8 percent QoQ, but up 2.0 percent YoY.

The GSA is non-profit organization that promotes and supports the semiconductor supply chain. The data comes from the Q1 Wafer Fabrication & Back-End Pricing Survey, which represent purchases made/received between Oct. 1 and Dec. 30 and is named for the quarter in which the survey is released.

GSA said that 90 percent of survery partipants were getting the capacity they need with the yes percentage increasing by 13 percentage points QoQ from 77 percent in the previous quarter.


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