The SEMI said on the 6th that global silicon wafer shipments in the first quarter of this year reached 3.275 billion square inches. That was up 13.1% from the same period a year earlier (2.896 billion square inches). However, it fell 4.7% from the previous quarter's 3.437 billion square inches due to seasonal factors.
Kinji Yada, chair of the SEMI SMG (Silicon Manufacturers Group), said, "Demand for silicon wafers related to artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, including advanced logic and memory, continues to be strong and is now expanding into the power management semiconductor field," adding, "Overall silicon wafer demand has improved and the demand recovery in the industrial semiconductor institutional sector is fast, but this trend is not appearing uniformly across all areas."
Silicon wafers are a key basic material used to manufacture most semiconductors. They are produced in diameters up to 300 mm and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductors are made. The SEMI is an industry association representing the global electronics industry supply chain.