News

3 October 2006

 

Market for GaN and AlN substrates forecast to exceed $440m by 2010

Market research company Strategies Unlimited forecasts that increasing demand for blue-violet laser diodes, UV LEDs, and high-power, high-frequency electronic devices will provide significant market opportunities for advanced substrates such as gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN).

In its recent market study ‘Substrates for GaN-Based Devices: Performance Comparisons and Market Assessment’, Strategies Unlimited says that over the past 10 years the availability of high quality sapphire and silicon carbide (SiC) substrates has enabled the GaN device market to exceed $3bn. However, demand is now increasing for advanced GaN and AlN substrates, to match the growing blue-violet laser diode, UV LED, and high-power, high-frequency electronic device markets. These markets will require GaN and AlN substrates to provide the lattice matching and thermal characteristics necessary to produce high-performance devices at high yields, says the study.

Companies such as Cree, Crystal IS, Kyma, Lumilog, Samsung Corning, Sumitomo Electric, TDI, The Fox Group, and TopGaN are all able to provide such substrates. Worldwide, the effort to develop these substrates, as well as to improve conventional substrate properties (e.g. three-inch and larger diameter sapphire and SiC), includes 48 companies and 118 universities and research centers, the study adds.

Based on the forecast demand for high-brightness LEDs, blue-violet laser diodes, and high-power, high-frequency electronic devices, the study says that demand for substrates for GaN devices is expected to grow from $340m in 2006 to $880m in 2010. Advanced substrates such as GaN and AlN are forecast to account for more than half of that market in 2010.

Contact Tim Carli: tcarli@strategies-u.com

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