Abstract
For more than 20 years, silicon pure players have been looking at those "strange" semiconductor materials made of a compound of 2 or more metals, wondering if it could be, one day, a threat for their existing business. Material makers are seeking new business opportunities outside of silicon and equipment suppliers are open to adapt their know-how and expand their product portfolio.
Silicon largely dominates the semiconductor business as the reference material. However, specific applications such as optoelectronics, RF or power electronics require material properties that cannot be offered by silicon. GaN, GaAs, InP, SiC and Sapphire substrates now account for only 0.6% of the 8,630 million square inches annually processed in semicon fabs. However, that small portion of processed area is compensated by a higher merchant price leading to a $800M market size in 2007, reaching the billion dollar threshold by 2009 - 2010.
GaAs has been the leading material in volume thanks to the wireless technology demand, but SiC and sapphire are now benefiting from the booming LED business.
Bulk GaN is becoming the winning choice for blue laser diode makers.
InP is still in the race expecting a strong rebound of the optical fibre demand.
Up to now, these materials have been protected from silicon competition, allowing device performance not reachable by THE semiconductor material (Frequency, power, thermal conductivity, robustness, junction temperature, voltage breakdown...). However, compound materials exhibit market prices dramatically higher than Si. This situation pushes the device developers to do "as well as" the compounds but using silicon. Bill Of Material is, and will remain, the main market driver for the adoption of these CS substrates and related technologies.
All the considered materials are now available in a 4 inch format except bulk GaN that has just been released in 3 inch in Japan. This diameter expansion helps to lower the manufacturing cost of CS-based devices and to mass market affordable products.
This report offers a unique panorama of the compound semi material business in a single package. It highlights the main metrics and the key market trends that will help material and equipment vendors to position their R&D efforts and anticipate the changes and forecasted evolution of their business.
Table of Contents
Glossary
Executive summary
- CS material substrate applications segmentation
- 2005-2012 annual consumption of CS materials in surface area (Million Inch²)
- Evolution of CS materials consumption over silicon
- Relative evolution of processed surface for various CS materials
- CS materials bulk substrate market size in M$
- What can create disruptions in the next 5 years?
- CS materials risk analysis: Today status and possible evolutions
- 2007 bulk CS wafers average market price
GaAs substrate market
- Introduction
- Main targeted applications of GaAs-based devices
- Key advantages of GaAs-based devices
- S.I. vs. S.C. GaAs applications
- Growth methods of GaAs substrates
- GaAs substrate vendors growth technique and products
- 2007 estimation of GaAs bulk substrate vendors market shares
- 2005-2012 SC + SI GaAs substrates consumption in Msi
- GaAs substrates SI + SC market size
- 2005-2012 SI GaAs substrates annual consumption, split by diameter
- 2007 GaAs epiwafer vendors market share
- 2007 GaAs RFIC market breakdown by application
- GaAs $ content in wireless LAN
- GaAs $ content in cell phones
- 2007 TOP20 GaAs RF device maker revenues
- Conclusions
Sapphire substrate market
- Introduction
- Main applications of sapphire-based devices
- Growth methods of sapphire substrates
- Sapphire substrates main manufacturers
- Sapphire vendors growth technique and products
- c-plan sapphire for Nitride LEDs
- Market segmentation
- LED market volume as a function of LED type
- LED market revenues as a function of LED type Based on packaged LEDs
- 2001-2012 GaN-LED market status and forecast for packaged LED devices
- Average retail price of a conventional packaged LED
- Estimated substrates volume for GaN-based LED production (SiC & Sapphire) 2005-2012
- 2007 sapphire substrate market for LED: price, units and diameter analysis
- 2005-2012 Sapphire substrate market volume for Nitride LED split by diameter
- 2005-2012 Sapphire substrate market size for Nitride LED split by diameter
- r-plan sapphire for Antenna Switch Module (ASM): SoS
- Comparison of cell-phone antenna switching module (ASM) technologies
- Antenna Switching Module (ASM) market data and main players
- 2005-2012 RF switch technology breakdown
- Main data of the SoS UltraCMOS® switch manufacturing process
- 2005-2012 sapphire substrate market size and volume for SoS applications
- 2005-2012 sapphire total market size in M$ and Msi
- Conclusions
SiC substrate market
- Introduction
- SiC-based devices market size and related market shares
- State-of-art in SiC crystal growth
- SiC material type vs. applications
- From powder to SiC epi-ready wafers. Sublimation (PVT) technique
- SiC crystal growth techniques comparison table
- Main SiC material manufacturing site locations Bulk or epi-foundry
- 2007 estimated SiC substrates monthly production
- Material polytypes, doping & orientation commercially available
- 2006 & 2007 SiC substrate vendors revenues & related market shares
- Key accounts of SiC material vendors 2007 status
- SiC epi-house and epi-service offers
- Wafers diameter evolution in production for Power Electronics
- Wafers diameter evolution in production for HB-LED
- Wafers diameter evolution in production for GaN/SiC RF devices
- 2004-2015 SiC row substrates price evolution for various material types
- Average $/mm² price for SiC row substrates
- Comparison SiC/Si for cost of raw substrate for a 1 Amp device
- Examples of current SiC wafer price
- SiC sublimation reactors yield
- SiC epitaxy: typical process time
- 2005-2012 forecasts for SiC substrates market in power electronics
- Estimation of the CREE captive SiC substrates market for LED
- Conclusion: Where and what to sell, epi or bulk?
GaN substrate market
- Introduction
- Main targeted applications of GaN devices
- 2005-2012 GaN substrate revenues in M$ for LED, Laser, RF & power electronics
- GaN growth techniques MOCVD general information
- GaN growth techniques MBE general information
- GaN growth techniques HVPE general information
- GaN growth techniques Advantages & Drawbacks
- GaN crystal growth techniques comparison table and main vendors
- Different substrates for GaN epitaxy "Direct growth or buffer approach"
- Different substrates for GaN epitaxy "Composite substrates: wafer bonding approach"
- Picogiga - SOITEC (F) SopSiC (Silicon on Poly-SiC) substrate
- Aonex Technologies (US) A-Sapph & A-GaN
- BluGlass GaN on Glass
- IMEC (B) GaN on Germanium. Ge (111)
- IMEC (B) GaN on Silicon
- AZZURO Semiconductors (D) GaN on Silicon
- Toshiba Ceramic "TOCERA" (J) GaN on Silicon (with 3C-SiC buffer layer)
- Nitronex (US) GaN on Silicon
- TDI (US) GaN/SiC and GaN/Sapphire
- Hitachi Cable (J) GaN/SI.I SiC and GaN/Sapphire
- Cermet (US) GaN on ZnO
- SOD: Silicon On Diamond Main advantages for GaN growth
- Group4 Lab (US) GaN/Diamond. Double wafer bonding approach
- sp3 Diamond Technology (US) DOS (Diamond on Si) & SOD
- GaN / Silicon epiwafer manufacturers 2007 status
- GaN/Sapphire & GaN/SiC epiwafer manufacturers 2007 status
- Bulk / free-standing GaN specifications: 2007 production status
- Bulk / free-standing GaN specifications: R&D status
- Non-polar & semi-polar GaN main interests
- Non-polar & semi-polar GaN substrates R&D status
- Bulk / free-standing GaN wafers Estimated monthly production capacity
- Examples of current GaN material pricing
- GaN substrates / applications matrix
- Tentative time-to-market for different substrates in different applications
Bulk & free-standing GaN substrate for blue laser diodes
- Introduction: Blue laser diodes status
- Targeted applications for GaN blue laser diodes
- Blue laser diodes market in game stations
- GaN-based laser diodes state-of-the-art
- Known supply-chain in the blue LD business
- 2007 Blue LD cost breakdown model From 2" bulk GaN wafer to packaged LD
- Blue LD manufacturing yield. Key critical steps are dicing, faceting and packaging
- 2005-2012 annual volumes for GaN blue laser diodes for various applications and related device revenues
- Estimated 2006 market share of Blue Laser Diode makers
- 2005-2012 annual volumes for 2" bulk GaN wafers for blue LD and related substrates revenues Hypothesis: 100% of blue LD are made on bulk GaN substrates...
- Future GaN laser applications: laser TV and projectors
- Conclusion on Blue Laser Diodes and Bulk GaN business
InP substrate market
- Introduction
- Main targeted applications of InP-based devices
- InP crystal growth flow chart
- InP material value-chain & ASP in 2007
- Application overview
- Main data of the InP device manufacturing process and ASP
- InP Optical Devices
- InP-based Optical Applications
- InP optical devices main players along the value chain
- Where InP-based devices can be found in a FO network?
- InP telecom lasers: optical fiber network structure
- InP telecom lasers: Metro and Access FO Networks
- State of the art of current network levels
- Challenges for InP devices in the telecom market
- Electron Devices
- InP electronic devices main players along the value chain
- InP HEMT and HBT technology
- High Speed InP IC applications
- 2005-2012 InP-based devices market size
- Main InP material vendors 2007 revenues and product breakdown
- 2007 InP material vendors market shares
- Usage of InP wafers and Substrates diameter breakdown
- 2005-2012 InP wafer market volume (Merchant & captive) split by diameter
- 2005-2012 InP wafer market size (Merchant & captive) split by diameter
- Conclusion: InP market will gain momentum thanks to heterogeneous integrated photonics
