Weak memory market impacts test probe card market, VLSI Research says

The market researchers also warned that 2008 will be a particularly difficult year for companies serving the memory IC market, with sales of probe cards forecast to reach $1.41 billion this year, up a modest 3.4% from $1.36 billion in 2007.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 5/19/2008

Weakness in the semiconductor industry pushed sales of IC wafer testing probe cards down to half of the five-year historic average, or 13.9%, in 2007 according to Santa Clara, Calif.-based market research company VLSI Research Inc.

The company also warned that 2008 will be a particularly difficult year for companies serving the memory IC market, with sales of probe cards forecast to reach $1.41 billion this year, up a modest 3.4% from $1.36 billion in 2007.

Last year, US-based FormFactor, Japan-based Micronics Japan Co (MJC) and JEM, also based in Japan, maintained their strong lead at the top of the wafer probe card supplier ranking, while Korea-based Phicom moved into 4th position, up from 6th in 2006.  US-based SV Probe ranked as the 5th largest supplier of probe cards.

At the same time, in spite of the industry slowdown, VLSI noted that the probe card market continues to outpace the semiconductor IC market, with an average annual growth rate of 28% over the past 5 years, which has been fuelled by the demands of memory IC testing, where the historic 5-year cumulative annual growth rate of memory bits shipped has been over 90%.

VLSI Research expects that the probe card market will reach $2.4 billion by 2012.