Is there a life for bulk GaN substrate out of the blue laser diode business?

FRANCE: Yole Developpement has released a new market analysis dedicated to Bulk GaN. In this report, the French consulting company detailed the major market metrics of the current and projected bulk/free-standing GaN substrate business, with a focus on applications, key players, volumes and related market size of each segment.

Yole highlighted the possible total accessible market for GaN substrates, including the strengths and weaknesses of this technology over the current established epiwafer or ELO technologies. Yole’s described the recent progress in crystalline quality as well as the new challenges offered by non-polar and semi-polar GaN material.

From blue lasers to lighting and power electronics
Today, bulk or Free-Standing (FS) GaN substrate market is mostly driven by the blue laser diode production only and its related application in high-density data storage. This market is driven by strong demand for Bluray players and game stations.

From 2011 and most likely 2012, Ultra-High Brightness (UHB) LEDs will start taking part of the bulk-GaN production. “That will only be possible with a sharp drop in bulk-GaN prices. We forecast that the critical threshold is below $1,500 for a 2” “LED-grade” substrate”, explained Dr Philippe Roussel, Project Manager at Yole Développement. Only such a price level will act as leverage for LED market take-off.

2012-2013 will also see the introduction of new power devices based on bulk-GaN. Again, here, that is strongly linked to the pricing of bulk-GaN that will have to compete with 4” and future 6” SiC offer and GaN-on-Silicon alternate technology.

Lack of bulk material pushes for ELO technique
Market is now essentially centered on free-standing material. However, the shortage of this product has to be compensated by the use of home-made ELO-GaN on sapphire substrates. Yole Développement assumes about 28% of LD was made on ELO-GaN in 2008. This percentage will decrease a little but will stay significant by 2012.

Asia dominates the substrate business but EU and US exhibit credible challengers

The main free-standing producer remains Sumitomo, mostly supplying Nichia and Sony for laser production. Other challengers such as Hitachi-cable (now sampling 3” wafers) or Mitsubishi Chemical are becoming more and more present.

In Europe, LumiLOG, now part of Saint-Gobain group and the UK company, NanoGaN, is fine-tuning its product line-up for the LED illumination business; Ammono and TopGaN are improving their strong expertise in low dislocation density crystals.

The US region is mainly focusing on non or semi-polar material, with Kyma, Inlustra Technologies or Oxford Instruments (TDI).

By 2015, bulk GaN for LED will dominate the substrate market in volume

2” substrates production volume could reach about 100,000 units by 2010, leading to a relative $240M market for both free-standing and ELO. Beyond 2013, the growing demand for bulk GaN in LED lighting applications will rapidly dominates the market in volume.