Worldwide silicon wafer shipments elevated 7.1 p.c quarter-over-quarter to three,035 million sq. inches (MSI) within the second quarter of 2024 however noticed an 8.9 p.c decline from the three,331 million sq. inches recorded throughout the identical quarter final 12 months, the SEMI Silicon Producers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly evaluation of the silicon wafer trade.

Lee Chungwei, chairman of SEMI SMG and vp and chief auditor at GlobalWafers, says: “The silicon wafer market is recovering pushed by robust demand associated to merchandise for knowledge facilities and generative AI.

“Whereas the restoration is uneven throughout completely different functions, 300mm wafer Q2 shipments indicated 8% quarter-over-quarter progress for the perfect efficiency amongst all wafer sizes. There are a rising variety of new semiconductor fabs underneath building or ramping manufacturing quantity.

“This growth, together with the longer-term development towards a $1 trillion semiconductor market, will inevitably require extra silicon wafers.”

Silicon wafers are the basic constructing materials for almost all of semiconductors, that are very important parts of all digital units. 

The extremely engineered skinny disks are produced in diameters of as much as 12 inches and function the substrate materials on which most semiconductors are fabricated.