Santa Clara, USA: VLSI Research Inc. recently announced the Top 10 IC Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers for 2007. Despite ending in uncertainty and a slight slowdown, 2007 turned out to be a solid year overall for the major players in the IC equipment industry.

The Top 10 IC equipment suppliers recorded combined revenues of $33.5B, a 10 percent increase from the previous year. They maintained their trend of growing faster than the total IC manufacturing equipment industry, which increased 8 percent to VLSI's current estimated number of $57.5B. In this analysis, an IC equipment supplier's revenue includes sales of systems used to manufacture semiconductors, thin-film heads, MEMs, as well as service, support, and refurbished systems.

The Top 15 IC equipment companies continue to represent the core of the industry. Their combined revenues accounted for 67 percent of the total market, up 2 percent from 2006. Within the group, 12 out of the 15 suppliers recorded positive growth compared to 2006.

Regional representation in the Top 15 IC equipment suppliers remained consistent compared to 2006. The major US players accounted for 47 percent of the combined group revenues, while the Japanese suppliers represented 37 percent. The two European representatives together accounted for 16 percent of the Top 15 revenues. With respect to last year, US and Europe each gained a percentage point, as the Japanese representatives lost two points from the overall share.

               Top Ten IC Equipment Suppliers†
2007                                                           2007     
Rank   Company                                           $M
1         Applied Materials                              8523
2         Tokyo Electron Ltd                            6291
3         ASML                                                 5145
4         KLA-Tencor                                       2781
5         Lam Research Corp.                         2624
6         Nikon Corp.                                      2148
7         Advantest Corp.                               1657
8         Novellus Systems Inc.                      1555
9         Hitachi High-Technologies                1445
10       Dainippon Screen Mfg.                     1330

Next Five
11      Canon Inc.                                       1309
12      ASM International N.V.                     1172
13      Varian Semiconductor                      1074
14      Teradyne Inc.                                    876
15      Verigy Inc.                                         762

†: †Includes revenues from IC and related system sales, service and support. Flat Panel Displays are not included.