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A mask shop is a factory which manufactures photomasks for use in the semiconductor industry. There are two distinct types found in the trade. Captive mask shops are in-house operations owned by the biggest semiconductor corporations, while merchant mask shops make masks for most of the industry.
Merchant mask shops will produce photomasks for a variety of integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries or optical device companies in addition to providing excess cavity work and re- pellicle for captive mask shops.
The company structure is similar to that of any medium-sized manufacture and has the following unique departments or mask makers:
- Sales Customer / customer services
- Front end data prep
- Facilities maintenance - plant & environment
- Engineering - equipment maintenance
- Engineering - process, inspection & metrology
- Quality assurance
- Shipping & dispatching
Photomask market
The worldwide photomask production market was $3.1 billion in 2013. Almost half of market attributed to captive mask shops (in-house mask shops of major chipmakers). [1]
Infrastructure (technical and financial)
The costs of creating new mask shop for 180 nm processes were estimated in 2005 as $40 million, and for 130 nm - more than $100 million. [2] In 2013 cost of new 28 nm mask shop was estimated at $110 – 140 million. [3]
Future
As technology shrinks, the cost to mask shops increase and the product turn around time grow longer as well.
See also
References
- ^ Tracy, Dan; Deborah Geiger (April 14, 2014). "SEMI Reports 2013 Semiconductor Photomask Sales of $3.1 Billion". SEMI. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
- ^ An Analysis of the Economics of Photomask Manufacturing Part – 1: The Economic Environment, Weber, February 9, 2005. Slide 6 "The Mask Shop’s Perspective"
- ^ Hayes, Caroline (September 23, 2013). "EDA-IP Update. Photomask, the industry's Cinderella". ChipDesignMag. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
Further reading
- Rizvi, Syed (2005). Handbook of Photomask Manufacturing Technology. CRC Press. p. 728. ISBN 9781420028782.
External links
- Mask industry assessment: 2009 // Proc. SPIE 7488, Photomask Technology 2009, 748803 (September 29, 2009); doi:10.1117/12.832722
- 2013 mask industry survey // Proc. SPIE 8880, Photomask Technology 2013, 88800K (September 20, 2013); doi:10.1117/12.2033255
- SEMATECH’s Photomask Industry Survey Validates Top Industry Challenges and Identifies Long-Term Opportunities // ALBANY N.Y. (September 24, 2013)