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Commentary & Perspective...
Where to Go for Knowledgeable Nitride Market ResearchOctober 17, 2006...One of the things we're especially proud of here at CompoundSemi News is an ability to field questions about our industry and point inquiring minds in the right direction. (And you can't believe some of the far out questions we get!) Answers-R-Us. If we don't have the right answer, we usually know who does. Like a wise person once pontificated... "the right answer is just two phone calls away." Now days, it's often just two "clicks" away, thanks to the Internet. One of the questions we frequently field is... "Where do I go to get good, reliable market research information?" And most often the inquiring mind is wanting specific information about everyone's current most favorite wide bandgap compound semi starting material, Gallium Nitride (GaN)... also known to many within the field as simply "nitrides" since there are a growing number of varied flavors within the nitride family. GaN R&D gurus originally referred to the sector as Group III Nitrides, or Group III-N (for nitrogen v.s. nitrides) but I'm not sure if even the purists stick to that anymore. There's no need to dig into the Periodic Table of Elements though... simply say "GaN" (as in "can") and anyone in the compound semi field will know what you mean. To pre-empt future calls on this specific topic, I thought a column pointing people in the direction of the latest recommended studies for sale that cover the the GaN field might be in order. While we ourselves do not do market research here at CompoundSemi Online Inc. (news, online directories, conferences, yes! Market research, no!) we certainly know the folks who do. I point you to two especially reliable sources in this column: Strategies Unlimited of Mountain View, California USA and a study from the people at IOP's Compound Semiconductor magazine based in Bristol, UK. First, Strategies Unlimited's, because they've been at this the longest. PennWell Publishing's Strategies Unlimited market research firm has been doing formal forecasts on the GaN market for the past nine years and they issue a fresh, totally comprehensive update every two years. They have two current GaN-related studies out now, both under the direction of Bob Steele, who remains the foremost GaN market research expert. Their fourth edition, Gallium Nitride 2005 - Technology Status, Applications, and Market Forecasts was issued in March of 2005, so we can expect the next edition in the spring of 2007. These reports, the principal author of which continues to be Hank Rodeen, who has been lending his technical expertise on GaN to Strategies since 1997, cover the status of worldwide technology developments and markets for gallium nitride optoelectronic and electronic devices. Their other study, also spearheaded by Hank, was released this September, titled: Substrates for GaN Based Devices: Performance Comparisons and Market Assessment Just to keep this all in perspective from the get-go, Strategies Unlimited reported in March of 2005 that "Having achieved a worldwide device market of $3.2 billion in 2004, gallium nitride technology continues to be one of the biggest success stories in compound semiconductors. Although high-brightness LEDs dominate the market currently, gallium-nitride-based laser diodes and electronic devices are in the early stages of market growth and will achieve substantial volumes in the next five years The total market for all types of gallium nitride devices is forecast at $7.2 billion in 2009. As of early 2005, 232 companies were participating in gallium nitride production or development, and 394 universities and research centers were involved in gallium nitride R&D. These worldwide figures represent an increase of 26% and 35%, respectively, since the publication of Strategies Unlimited's previous gallium nitride report in June 2003." No wonder people want to learn about GaN I imagine the 2007 update will see continued expansion and probably some significant consolidation. Strategies' GaN substrate study evidently updates much of the above and looks at new technology developments, especially those that have taken place since 2004, covers present high-profile R&D activities, profiles industrial suppliers, gets into the various government support programs going on, looks at major and emerging applications extends the market forecast by application and device type through 2010. At our next Compound Semi Vision conference we'll try and get Bob Steele and the other analysts at Strategies Unlimited to look even further into the future and try and come up with some longer term forecasts. 5 and 10 years out for materials and machine people isn't too much to ask, and that's the emphasis for our annual CS Vision get-together, which matches a number of analysts for each of the sectors we cover in these pages: communications, solid state lasers, high efficiency solar cells, high temp/high power devices, and advanced LEDs. (Note that CS Vision will be held early in June, 2007 and will be back on its own in Dallas) IOP's Compound Semiconductor magazine staff, under the editorship of Michael Hatcher, are also very in tune with what's going on in GaN, and especially the hottest current compound topic, the GaN electronics market. IOP's CS mag people, under a project name of Technology Tracking (a partnership between Europe's QinetiQ and the Institute of Physics Publishing, i.e. IOP) issued a study in January of this year called Emerging Markets for GaN Electronics. As the promotion aptly points out, "the last three years has witnessed impressive progress in the performance of electronic devices based on gallium nitride (GaN). GaN-based devices are now living up to their potential for delivering high-power performance over a range of frequencies, and are already appearing in the technology roadmaps of aerospace and defense contractors. However, more widespread adoption of GaN-based technology depends crucially on the cost, which in turn depends on the availability of high-volume manufacturing processes." The report includes indepth analysis of the technical and commercial strategies being pursued by GaN manufacturers as they seek to develop cost-effective solutions for mass-market applications such as wireless basestations, the emerging WiMAX market, and satellite communications. The Technology Tracking GaN electronics report covers both the technology and
commercial drivers at play in the market sectors being targeted by GaN manufacturers,
it looks at the various material choices including the different substrate technologies
being exploited and their impact on cost and performance. It goes into the technology
innovations needed to ensure long-term reliability of GaN devices, and the market
evolution, looking at how continuing technical advances will impact on future
market growth. It also profiles the leading developers of GaN electronics. So there you have. The right answer to where to go for knowledgeable nitride market research is, indeed, only a couple of clicks away. Just hit the hotlinks above, and there you have it! If you have news or
views to share about the compound semiconductor, LED or solid
state lighting industries |
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