Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending totaled $44.5 billion in 2007, a 5.9% increase from 2006 revenue of $42.1 billion, according to researcher Gartner, Inc.

Analysts said capital equipment sales were predominantly driven by investment by memory IC makers while logic and foundry investments declined once again.

“Uneven investment behavior, with weakness in logic/foundry and strength in memory-related capacity spending, once again impacted relative equipment market share positions, as well as the regional sales picture in 2007,” says Klaus Rinnen, managing vice president for Gartner's semiconductor manufacturing research group.

Investment in 45nm process technology ramped up, but still accounted for less than 10% of total investment for the year. Regionally, investments in North America, Japan and Europe were below market, while Asia/Pacific again led the charge with 14.9% growth.

Among the top five semiconductor equipment companies, four of the top five vendors outperformed the rest of the industry in growth. Applied Materials remained the market leader with $6.8 billion in revenue, but slightly lost share as it underperformed the market in 2007.

Tokyo Electron grew at nearly twice the rate of the overall market to $5.3 billion, capitalizing on its strong position with memory vendors adding to its dominance in photoresist processing.