Beyond that, if gallium nitride(GaN) is qualified in the EV/HEV sector, gallium nitride(GaN) device business could top the billion dollar line and the GaN-on-Si substrate market could exceed $300M revenues by 2019. However, it is still unclear how car makers will choose between SiC, GaN or the current Silicon technology. At the substrate end, R&D activities are still quite fragmented between several options involving

GAN POWER ELECTRONICS CROSS-FERTILIZES WITH LED INDUSTRY

A new trend is LED players now starting looking at this new business opportunity and wondering how to put in place a strategy of diversification to convert their existing extra LED capacity into power. That represents an “epsilon” today, but we assume it may create some disturbances in the natural and organic expected growth.

GaN power electronics past, present and future business is inseparable to the LED industry. Both are linked in technology and market dynamics.

In the past, the premises of GaN epi technology came from the LED industry that has brought this technology from the labs to mass production.

Today, the extensive developments of GaN-on-Si epiwafers fertilized both the LED and the Power industry. Most of the epiwafer vendors are targeting these 2 segments with dedicated products and offers.

Tomorrow, it is likely some incumbent LED pure-players will enter in the Power industry world, using their extra-capacity and existing tool-sets to make, at least epiwafers, or even power devices.

Thus, at the end of the day, we won’t talk about LED or Power sectors anymore, but rather about”GaN device industry” as main players could be the same.

A QUESTION OF BUSINESS MODEL

Power device makers usually buy polished Silicon wafers, conduct the epi (or buy Si epi-wafers) if needed (FZ thin wafer doesn’t require epitaxy) then process the devices. This model is roughly the same for SiC technology.

For those who plan to enter in the GaN field, 2 scenarios could occur:

Some may not integrate MOCVD GaN epitaxy. They will buy GaN epiwafers and process it in the existing CMOS Front-End lines, as they use to do with Silicon substrates (or SiC).

Some will try to fully integrate the GaN process, from the bare silicon, the GaN epi and the Front-End.