Embedded Vision Enhances Semiconductor Manufacturing
Semiconductor Industry Will Continue Strong Growth Patterns As Embedded Vision Becomes Increasing More Vital
Embedded vision systems perform essential inspection and metrology functions in semiconductor manufacturing, helping to ease the burden of soaring design costs while improving quality. Embedded vision facilitates precision manufacturing. As the demands for high throughput continue to increase, embedded vision technologies are developing in step, allowing for the automation of ever more functions to boost efficiency while meeting precision and quality requirements.
The overall semiconductor manufacturing market is expected to be worth $437 billion in 2018 with 7% year-over-year growth1. This follows an incredible year of expansion in 2017, where the industry grew by nearly 21%. Semiconductor demand is growing at a rapid pace alongside the need for increased computing power. The challenge for manufacturers is remaining competitive amid rising design and production costs.
The embedded vision market is also set to expand in several key areas related to the increased demand for semiconductors by data centers and cloud service providers leveraging graphics processing units (GPUs) for artificial intelligence (AI). Other future applications include improving upon 3D spatial resolution to achieve more comprehensive characterization of physical properties, such as crystal structure and composition, while promoting higher overall throughput without reducing quality.
Along with the growing demand for semiconductors comes a myriad of production optimization obstacles. Aimed at helping semiconductor manufacturers to overcome those obstacles, the capabilities of embedded vision are continuing to expand to deliver increased speed, efficiencies, quality, and profitability.
Sources:
1. World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, “WSTS' Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Forecast for 2018”