Sanan Integrated Circuit Co Ltd (Sanan IC) of Xiamen City, Fujian province (China’s first 6-inch pure-play compound semiconductor wafer foundry) has announced its entry into the North American, European and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets with its III-V technology platform, which spans a wide range of applications for the microelectronics and photonics markets via its broad portfolio of gallium arsenide (GaAs) HBT, pHEMT, BiHEMT, integrated passive device (IPD), filters, gallium nitride (GaN) power HEMT, silicon carbide (SiC), and indium phosphide (InP) DHBT process technologies.
Founded in 2014 and focused on high-performance, large-scale III-V semiconductor manufacturing and on serving the RF, millimeter-wave, power electronics, and optical markets, Sanan IC is a subsidiary of LED chip maker Sanan Optoelectronics Co Ltd (China’s largest LED epiwafer and chip maker, based on GaN and GaAs technologies). Leveraging high-volume production and years of investment by its parent company in epiwafer reactors for the LED lighting and solar photovoltaic markets, Sanan IC is expanding its go-to-market strategy beyond the Greater China region as its process technologies and patent portfolio mature, aiming to fulfill the needs of integrated devide manufacturers (IDMs) and fabless design houses for high-volume compound semiconductor fabrication.
“We see tremendous opportunity in serving the worldwide demand for large-scale production of 6-inch III-V epitaxial wafers, driven by continual growth of the RF, millimeter-wave, power electronics and optical markets,” says Sanan IC’s CEO Raymond Cai. “Our vertically integrated manufacturing services over our broad compound semiconductor technology platform, with in-house epitaxy and substrate capabilities, make us an ideal foundry partner,” he reckons. “Given the capital investments made on state-of-the art equipment and facilities, with full support from our parent company Sanan Optoelectronics combined with strategic partnerships and a world-class team of scientists and technologists, Sanan IC is well positioned for success in this active compound semiconductor market.”
As cellular mobility and wireless connectivity proliferates in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and as 5G sub-6GHz evolves into the millimeter-wave range, III-V technologies is becoming even more critical for supporting the infrastructure and clients’ device deployments by carriers worldwide, says Sanan. According to market research firm Yole Développement, the GaAs wafer market (RF, photonics, photovoltaics and LEDs) will grow to over 4 million units in 2023, with photonics having the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37%. GaN and SiC for power electronics - such as for data centers, electric vehicles (EVs), battery chargers, power supplies, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), and audio - are predicted to ramp up, with GaN shipments growing at a CAGR of 79% to $460m in 2022 and SiC growing at a CAGR of 29% to $1.4bn in 2023. Optical components continue to be in high demand for datacom, telecom, consumer, automotive and industrial markets, leading to increased revenue for photodectors, laser diodes and especially vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), with expected shipments of $3.5bn in 2023.
