The worldwide front-end fab equipment spending is expected to grow by 3.7% in 2016 to US$37.2 billion, and rise another 13.3% to US$42.1 billion in 2017, stated SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) on March 10. However, fab equipment spending for 2015 inched down 0.4% year on year to US$35.9 billion. The slight decline for semiconductor equipment spending in 2015 and slow growth in 2016 indicate that the semiconductor industry has reached a higher degree of maturity. SEMI forecasts that the spending of dedicated foundries, which totaled US$9.8 billion in 2015, will increase by 5% and 10%, respectively, in 2016 and 2017, and the spending of 3D NAND flash memory fabs will grow by 50% year on year to arrive at US$5.6 billion in 2016. However, the spending of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) is expected to decrease by 23% in 2016 but to rise 10% in 2017.