The Japan earthquake has resulted in the suspension of one-quarter of the global production of silicon wafers used to make semiconductors. The 25% reduction in supply could have a major effect on worldwide semiconductor production, the market researcher warned.
Manufacturing operations have stopped at Shin-Etsu Chemical's Shirakawa facility. MEMC Electronic Materials also stopped manufacturing at its Utsunomiya plant. Together, these two facilities account for 25% of the global supply of silicon wafer used to make semiconductors, IHS indicated.
Shin-Etsu's Shirakawa facility produces large 300mm wafers, which are used in more advanced semiconductors that have high transistor counts. The wafers made by this facility mainly are used in the manufacturing of memory devices, such as flash memory and DRAM. Because of this, the global supply of memory semiconductors will be impacted the most severely of any segment of the chip industry by the production stoppage, IHS believes. Logic devices represent the next largest use of these wafers.
Located in Nishigo Village, Fukushima Prefecture, Shin-Etsu's Shirakawa plant is responsible for 20% of global silicon semiconductor wafer supply.
MEMC evacuated employees and suspended operations at its Utsunomiya plant after the earthquake. The Utsunomiya facility accounts for 5% of worldwide semiconductor wafer supply.
In another development for the global electronics supply chain, two Japan-based companies announced they have stropped production that amounts to 70% of the worldwide supply of the main raw material used to make PCBs, IHS said. The companies, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company and Hitachi Kasei Polymer, expects to resume production within two weeks of the raw material called copper-clad laminate (CCL).
However, with current inventory levels, IHS believes that there likely is sufficient supply of finished PCBs and raw CCL material to keep electronics production lines running at global electronics manufacturers, as long as the interruption does not last significantly longer than two weeks.
Confirming what IHS noted in a previous release, AKM Semiconductor said its fab producing electronics compasses for the iPad 2 has not been damaged. The main fab for the production of the compass is located in Nobeoka, on the South island of Japan and did not suffer any power cut either.
AKM's delivery of products potentially could be affected by the same logistical and power supply issues impacting all of Japan's industries. AKM responded saying that it already uses multiple fabs including one external source for the fabrication of its compass. Also the compass is fabricated using standard CMOS process and the production can easily be transferred to any CMOS foundry in the world. This should enable AKM to overcome logistical hurdles that may arise.
The earthquake has damaged about 40% of the total wafer capacity of Renesas Electronics, IHS observed. The company has stopped production at its Tsugaru fabs producing analog and discrete devices, at its Naka facility making system-on-chip and microcontroller devices, and at its Takasaki and Kofu fabs making analog and discrete parts.
Half of the total wafer capacity at Fujitsu has been damaged. While the company's fabs and wafer equipment are intact, the shortage of electricity, gas and wafers means it will take three or four weeks for the company to recovery production, according to IHS.