Internet of things (IoT) era, the relevant process technology are also moving in system level package (SiP) development, the evolution of new process was unexpected to old cheng spark lit the new second-hand equipment market, make equipment dealer in relevant business of second-hand equipment.

Semiconductor Engineering site reports, although some advanced iot device must be adopted by the fin type field-effect transistors (FinFET), all the empty insulation overlying the silicon (SOI) FD - new process technology, such as the production system of single chip (SoC), but most in the tens of billions of chips in the market is still in the old process to produce, also let old routine equipment become hot.

In other words, although some chip makers continue to 5 nai metric cheng, but 2.5 D and diffusion type (Fan - out) the development of packaging technology are still subject to overcome, and some of them will be through the new FinFET process to achieve, others will use the old process for development.

In the new old under the development trend of the mixing process, the process of old equipment started in short supply, some second-hand equipment even have difficulty in normal operation, but there is still a fabs are willing to compromise, the second-hand equipment increasingly in demand.

Wafer testing equipment factory branch lei (KLA - Tencor) said the second-hand equipment market demand fluctuation is not big, always but the performance of 2014 special bright eye, mainly from the part 8 inch and 12 inch wafer equipment needs, which is behind the two generations, more than 40 nanometers process.

Second-hand equipment market to heat up, gradually into the block related businesses, such as yi high-tech Group (EV) sales joint equipment used in the old process, equipment company, colin, Research and development (Lam Research) recently also in 28 nanometers and more old equipment repair process, and provides the system is a combination of old and new equipment, and Applied Materials (chipmaking gear) are also beginning to second-hand market scale.

Colin r&d deputy chief Wendell Isom said, beyond Moore's law (wining Moore) implementation, means that companies are trying to find alternative expansion of fabs capacity, so 8 inch and 12 inch process equipment can also be used to develop the Internet of things devices needed for the technology, low power consumption, etc. So the vendors also can continue to make new products for the old generation process.

Research the agency Semico Research thinks, because of the new equipment is expensive than second-hand equipment, fabs to buy new equipment will have to pay a higher cost, and 8 inch wafer factory for cheap second-hand equipment used, in addition to some specific tools such as joint, don't want to spend a lot of money used in new equipment.

So after lei's strategy is to buy second-hand equipment, to improve its effectiveness and to join the service. In light of the early fabs space is limited, if you can make the speed of the old equipment, can reduce the number of devices, also can let companies have more margin to buy new equipment such as exposure machine, etching machine.

Applied materials is also gradually started trying to second-hand equipment repair business, in consumer electronics, and the application of Internet of things, 8 inch and 12 inch equipment market is still expected to continue for some time, and the main market in addition to Europe and North America, China also has some new fabs is by previous generations of process technologies.

Is one of the old equipment renovation method is simply to make it back to normal operation, because some equipment too disrepair, is back to normal state alone can make production increases more than 20%. In addition, in addition to increase production, can also be used for the detection and measurement, such as pattern recognition tools to join Internet connections and upgrades, and other advanced applications, further extend the equipment performance.

As the market is changing, the past is like a gamble to buy new equipment, by contrast in the secondary market to sell the old equipment, and buy the new equipment, seems to be a more insurance alternatives.

However, as the process continues to progress, it is because of rising demand and the supply of second-hand equipment began to tight, make second-hand equipment purchase and start to narrow the gap between the new equipment, so also for the subsequent development of process equipment market adds a lot of variables.