Gallium Arsenide Wafer Market Size, Share, Growth, Sales, Trade, Shipment, Export Value And Volume With Sales And Pricing Forecast By 2028

Gallium Arsenide Wafer Market Introduction

A semiconductor compound of gallium (Ga) and arsenic (As) is known as gallium arsenide. Gallium is a rare earth material and a bi-product manufactured during the smelting of aluminum and zinc, and arsenic is known to have poisonous properties. Gallium arsenide wafers can be manufactured using a number of manufacturing technologies, such as Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) and Vertical Gradient Freeze (VGF).

Gallium arsenide wafers are commonly used in a wide range of industrial applications such as solar cells, laser diodes, wireless communication, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC). Owing to its extraordinary material properties, such as wide temperature operating range, high electron mobility, high thermal stability, and moisture resistance, gallium arsenide wafers are well suited for applications with fast electronic and switching ultra-high radio frequency. 

Gallium Arsenide Wafer Market – Notable Developments

• IQE Corporation and Wafer Technology, a global leader in advanced semiconductor products and gallium arsenide wafer market, announced in September 2018 that it has entered an the Option, Licence and Assignment Agreement with Translucent Inc. to purchase cREO™ – its unique and innovative ‘Rare Earth Oxide’ semiconductor technology. The company aims to leverage the cREO™ technology to adopt a unique approach while manufacturing innovative semiconductor products, including gallium arsenide wafer, gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon (Si), in order to gain momentum in RF technologies and power switching markets.

• United Monolithic Semiconductors, a European providers of RF MMIC products and foundry services for the aerospace and defense industry, announced in April 2018 that the PPH15X-20 gallium arsenide pHEMT technology has become part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Preferred Part List (EPPL).

• WIN Semiconductors Corp., a pure-play compound semiconductor foundry and a leading player in the gallium arsenide wafer market, announced September 2018 that the company is incorporating its innovative gallium arsenide technologies, such as PIH1-10, as the front-end semiconductor technology for the development and deployment of 5G network infrastructure and user equipment in the sub-6GHz and mmWave frequency bands.

Some of the most prominent competitors operating in the competitive landscape of global gallium arsenide wafer market include –

• Freiberger Compound Materials
• China Crystal Technologies
• Sumitomo Electric
• AXT
• Shenzhou Crystal Technology
• Powerway Advanced Material Co. Ltd
• Intelligent Epitaxy Technology, Inc.
• Yunnan Germanium
• Tianjin Jingming Electronic II-VI Incorporated
• Ommic S.A.
• Qorvo, Inc.
• WIN Semiconductors Corp.
• IQE Corporation and Wafer Technology
• DOWA Electronics Materials
• United Monolithic Semiconductors

Gallium Arsenide Wafer Market Dynamics

Advantages of Gallium Arsenide over Silicon Bolster Applications of Gallium Arsenide Wafer across Industries

Silicon is one of the most popular choice of material for manufacturing wafers and it finds numerous applications across a wide range of industrial sectors. However, the demand for gallium arsenide wafers are likely to supersede the demand for silicon wafers owing to the extraordinary material properties of gallium arsenide. Gallium arsenide is a lightweight and more flexible material than silicon, which improve the characteristics of gallium arsenide wafers in comparison with silicon wafers.

Also, gallium arsenide wafers are highly resistant to external factors, such as radiation, moisture, and ultraviolet light, which is another important factor to boost applications of gallium arsenide wafers across industries. As a result, gallium arsenide wafers are becoming a popular choice for aerospace applications, where resistance to ultraviolet rays and radiation is a must. Thereby, extraordinary material properties of gallium arsenide wafers are bolstering its demand over silicon wafers in various end-use applications.

Increasing Demand for Gallium Arsenide Wafers in Solar Applications will Boost Market Growth

Gallium arsenide wafers are gaining immense popularity as one of the most efficient solar material, as it helps end-users to produce more power for a given surface area than silicon wafers. Furthermore, material properties of gallium arsenide to perform well despite the low availability of sunlight leads to boosting demand for gallium arsenide wafers in solar power applications.

A mounting number of end-users are adopting strategies to grow a thin gallium arsenide layer on a crystal gallium arsenide wafer and then remove it to manufacture a flexible and lightweight solar cell. Thereby, growing needs for manufacturing lightweight, flexible, and highly efficient solar cells are triggering growth of the gallium arsenide wafer market across the world.

Increasing Applications of Gallium Arsenide Wafers in Communication Devices Mark an Important Market Trend

Despite the high demand for gallium phosphide (GaP) and indium phosphide (InP) in communication devices owing to their high data transmission speed, gallium arsenide wafers are being used vastly in communication devices as they enable manufacturers in the communication devices market to offer better production scalability of their products.  Gallium arsenide wafer-based communication devices exhibit superior properties compared to communication devices manufacturing using other semiconductor wafers as they can be produced on a large scale with an excellent yield rate.

Furthermore, with the emerging concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for gallium arsenide wafer-based, high-frequency communication devices has increased rapidly. Improved scalability, functionality, and compatibility of communication devices made of gallium arsenide wafer with the IoT network is complementing growth of the gallium arsenide wafer market. A majority of companies in the communication devices market are adopting strategies to expand their communication infrastructure, and this may boost adoption of gallium arsenide wafer-based devices. Thereby, this is likely to become one of the most popular trends in the gallium arsenide wafer market in the forthcoming years.

Gallium Arsenide Wafer Market Segmentation

Based on the manufacturing technologies, the gallium arsenide wafer market is segmented into,

• Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski (LEC)
• Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
• Vertical Gradient Freeze (VGF)
• Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE)
• Others

Based on the types of substrates, the gallium arsenide wafer market is segmented into,

• Semi-Insulating Gallium Arsenide Wafer (SI GaAs Wafer)
• Semi-Conducting Gallium Arsenide Wafer (SC GaAs Wafer)

Based on its end-use, the gallium arsenide wafer market is segmented into,

• RF Electronics
• Optoelectronics

Based on its industrial applications, the gallium arsenide wafer market is segmented into,

• Mobile Devices
• Wireless Communication Network
• Aerospace And Defense