Boosted by the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, spending on equipment needed to manufacture semiconductor chips will hit record levels both this year and in 2022.

According to the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) industry representative body, fab equipment spending of around $64 billion in 2020 – itself a record total – will rise to $74 billion this year.

And although the rate of growth is expected to slow a little in 2022, spending is still forecast to rise to about $83 billion. If that proves correct, it would mean that the market for semiconductor capital equipment had more than doubled from the 2016 total.

Much of that equipment relies on lasers and other optics and photonics technology, notably lithography systems used to pattern silicon wafers that already account for at least $10 billion of annual fab spending.