LED lighting is forecast to become an $80 billion dollar industry by 2020 and the market for epitaxial wafers (epi-wafers) is predicted to grow to $4 billion, according to new research.
A survey of LED wafer manufacturers carried out by Lux Research, also predicts that the LED epi-wafer GaN-on-Sapphire, will continue to dominate the market. Despite GaN-on-Silicon (Gan-On-Si) being much cheaper (one eighth of the cost of sapphire substrate) to manufacture, it is predicted to make up just 10 per cent of the market share by 2020.
The global report, Dimming the hype: Gan-on-Si fails to outshine sapphire by 2020, looked at the markets for GaN-on-sapphire, GaN-on-Si epi-wafers, GaN-on-silicon carbide (SiC) and GaN-on-bulk GaN. It predicted that GaN-on-SiC will grow to 18 per cent market share by 2020.
Production of LED chips is usually done on two to four inch wafers with an expensive sapphire substrate. However GaN-on-Si uses 200mm silicon wafers instead. The research forecasts that four inch wafers will dominate the market, but predicts six inch wafers will become more popular. In 2017, sales of four inch wafers are predicted to peak at 62 per cent market share, however in 2020 six inch wafers will take a 35 per cent share, equivalent to $1.4 billion.
