SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The 2018 DRAM market is expected to show an increase of 39%, compared to 77% growth in 2017, says IC Insights.

The DRAM market is the number one growth area for ICs, as it was the fastest segment in 2013 and 2014, the firm says.

IC Insights forecasts DRAM will rank nearly last in terms of market growth in 2019, with a 1% decrease in total sales.

After two years of strong growth, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have expanded manufacturing capacity and are beginning to ramp up production, bringing needed relief to strained supplies, especially for high-performance DRAM devices, says the research firm. At the same time, shipments of large-scale data center servers, which were a primary catalyst for much of the recent DRAM market surge, have begun to ease, as uncertain economic and trade conditions factor into decisions about continuing with the strong buildout.

NAND flash joins DRAM as another memory segment that has enjoyed strong growth over the past two years. Solid-state computing, particularly, has been a key driver for high-density, high-performance NAND flash, even as mobile applications continue to be a significant driver.

Meanwhile, automotive and computing special purpose logic devices have also been strong performers the past two years.

The top five IC markets listed for 2018 are the only product categories expected to surpass the 17% growth rate of the total IC market this year.