Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The compound semiconductor industry is small, but it' s the most dynamic
component of the overall global semiconductor industry. Compound semiconductor
components are used in variety of applications, including mobile handsets,
networking equipment, fiber optics equipment, various lighting applications
that range from display indicators to billboard advertisement and lighting,
solar power generation, night vision, barcode scanning, and many others. In
each particular case, the compound semiconductor devices are the enabling
components of the applications that define life in the 21st century.
Almost all of the modern, large technology-based corporations are exposed to
the compound semiconductor industry. Business of corporations like Nokia,
Motorola, Samsung or Toshiba is simply impossible without use of compound
semiconductor materials or components. Combined revenue of the corporations
that rely on compound semiconductor materials exceeds a trillion U.S. dollars
and the industry employs close to a million workers, including more than
100,000 scientists and researchers. The industry is established in North
America, in Europe, in Japan, in China and in South Korea, and is rapidly
growing in South Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world.
The compound semiconductor industry includes very broad areas of applications
and technologies, which cannot be covered in a single report. For this reason
we had to avoid, in some cases, excessive details on individual materials,
technologies or corporations in order to maintain the integrity of the entire
study.
The resources that were used for preparation of this report include annual
reports of publicly traded companies, government statistics, resources of
national patent agencies, professional industry publications, company press
releases, and other publications for individual sectors of the market. We
tried, however, to limit the use of third-party analysis as much as possible,
and to rely on directly published data.
The report includes predictions of market development from 2007 to 2012.
STUDY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of this study is to identify the most important developments within
the compound semiconductor industry and technologies, and to forecast the
expansion of the compound semiconductor market during the coming 5 years
(2007-2012). We will provide detailed market forecasts by industry sector, by
application, by region and by material. We will also provide the reference
source for new compound semiconductor technologies, leading compound
semiconductor companies, and compound semiconductor materials and their
applications.
REASONS FOR DOING THIS STUDY
The previous BCC research on compound semiconductor technologies (Compound
Semiconductor Materials: Technology, Development and Market Trends SMC032B)
was released in April of 2005. The compound semiconductor market and
technologies are developing rapidly, and since the release of that report
several significant developments have taken place (the downturn in the handset
market and its recent return to a healthy growth pattern, and the arrival of
the "soft white" light emitting diodes, among others). We believe that
revisiting the industry status, market trends and projecting the industry
developments up to 2012 are due. The current study serves these goals.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This report is intended for use by industry technical business planning and
marketing executives, market and investment analysts, specialized industry
media, government analysts and industrial policy makers world wide.
SCOPE OF THE REPORT
The report includes eight chapters.
The first chapter of the study provides basic data about the compound
semiconductor industry, materials, technologies and applications.
The second chapter is the key chapter of the study. It provides the analysis
of the compound semiconductor market. The market performance for 2004 through
2007 and for 2007 through 2012 is analyzed. Special attention is given to
microelectronics components market, light emitting diodes, laser diodes,
sensors, night vision and photovoltaics applications.
The third chapter discusses internationalization of the compound semiconductor
industry, international links and regulations, the markets and production of
some specific countries, and dynamics of change in the international market of
compound semiconductor materials.
The fourth chapter discusses and compares the market shares of individual
compound semiconductors, while the following fifth chapter analyses the
resource base of the compound semiconductor industry.
The sixth chapter provides the industry overview. It includes the profiles of
individual companies, both on the consumer and on the producer sides, the
profiles of the leading research institutions in technology development and in
applied research, and briefly outlines the fundamental research institutions
that are active in compound semiconductor research and development.
The seventh chapter discusses the status of compound semiconductor technology
and patent holdings by sector of the industry, by material and by region.
Finally, the last chapter of the study presents an analysis of the competition
in the industry.
INFORMATION SOURCES
Considering that the consumption of compound semiconductor materials in many
cases is defined by the end-user market for the products that include these
materials or components, we have used the market projections for end-user
products as the starting point for our analysis. The market analysis was
usually performed in dollar (or Euro) amounts, and the market estimates were
made for packaged components or devices.
The past market data are based primarily on BCC' s own research, on the leading
companies annual reports that are available in the public domain, and on the
data of other researchers. The methodology of the market forecast that we have
employed relies primarily on market predictions for the end-products where the
compound semiconductor materials are used. When such data are not available,
we analyze the market environment in regard to possible market shake-ups, and
based on this analysis apply, or don' t apply, a linear prediction methodology.
In the case when we believe that linear prediction results are not necessarily
reliable, we indicate this. Finally, some market niches (like automotive
exterior lighting or household applications for HB LED) are at the verge of
break-through to rapid expansion. In these cases we do special analysis, which
involves all the above mentioned sources, and also the data of other
researchers.
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