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Analyst: 450mm fabs to ramp in 2017
Widespread adoption of 450mm wafers by 2020
The first 450mm fabs are expected to come online in roughly five years time.
SEMI analyst Christian Dieseldorf predicts that three 450mm fabs will start production by 2017. The overall number of IC production fabs will drop from 464 in 2012 to 441 by 2017.
Several chipmakers have already jumped on board various 450mm initiatives, most notably the Global 450 Consortium, a $4.8 billion collaboration backed by the likes of Intel, IBM, Globalfoundries, Samsung and TSMC.
Gartner analyst Bob Johnson believes widespread adoption of 450mm wafers is still years away. The earliest date is 2018, but Johnson reckons we will see widespread adoption by 2019 or 2020.
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