Date: 26/02/2017

Projector laser diodes and HB LEDs driving the bulk GaN substrate market

Yole reports optoelectronics applications, particularly GaN-based laser diodes and GaN-on-GaN LEDs, are expected to drive the bulk GaN substrate market from 2016 - 2022.

Gallium nitride lasers find good growth recently in the Blu-ray market, but the Blu-ray market now is falling. The new opportunity for gallium nitride lasers is coming in the market of new growing areas such as projectors including office projector, mobile pico projector, HUD. Automotive lighting is also providing growth opportunities for bulk GaN substrates.

Due to decreasing cost of GaN substrate, LED manufacturers using GaN substrates for either spotlighting or automotive lighting. New GaN-on-GaN LED players are expected in the market in the coming years, according to Yole. Yole’s analysts Project laser diodes and LEDs as two key drivers for the growth in demand for bulk GaN substrate.

Yole says in 2016 the bulk GaN substrate market was estimated at about 60K wafers (Two Inch Equivalent (TIE)). “Essentially all commercial GaN wafers are produced by HVPE technology, but details of the growth process and separation techniques vary by company,” asserts Dr Lin from Yole. Other techniques, such as Na-flux or Ammonothermal, are still under development. “At Yole, we still do not see large volume of these wafers on the market”, confirms Dr Lin. And the market is expected to grow at a 10% CAGR between 2017 and 2022 to reach more than US$ 100 million in 2022.

More than 85% share in GaN substrate market is held by Japanese companies namely Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI), Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) and Sciocs. Though there are other vendors in this market, their market share still not high.

GaN market