Economic analysis of 450mm wafer migration

To achieve the required continuous cost reduction driven by Moore’s Law, both miniaturization through technology advances and wafer size increase have been employed in order to maintain the growth and profitability of semiconductor industry. Although some technical analyses have been done for 450mm migration, little research has been done on economic analysis to justify the decisions and thus suggest appropriate timing for 450mm migration. This study aims to fill the gap by proposing a preliminary economic analysis to clarify some myths and facilitate further discussions concerning collaborations among the stakeholders including equipment vendors, customers, and chipmakers.