Mask shop

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.

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. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 3 December 2015.

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)

[1] Tracy, Dan; Deborah Geiger (April 14, 2014). "SEMI Reports 2013 Semiconductor Photomask Sales of $3.1 Billion". SEMI. Retrieved 6 September 2014.

[2] An Analysis of the Economics of Photomask Manufacturing Part – 1: The Economic Environment, Weber, February 9, 2005. Slide 6 "The Mask Shop’s Perspective"

[3] Hayes, Caroline (September 23, 2013). "EDA-IP Update. Photomask, the industry's Cinderella". ChipDesignMag. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 3 December 2015.

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