ALD is taking off in More-than-Moore applications
Yole Développement announces a 12 percent CAGR to reach $680 million in 2026
According to Yole Développement's first report dedicated to ALD, Atomic Layer Deposition Equipment for More than Moore, the atomic layer deposition equipment market dedicated to More-than-Moore device manufacturing reacched $345 million in 2020. In the coming years, the ALD equipment market is expected to increase with a 12 percent CAGR between 2020 and 2026, reaching $680M in 2026.
According to Yole’s analysts, two main reasons can be given for the high growth of the ALD equipment market. Firstly, manufacturing sites are gearing up for the production of More-than-Moore devices that are gaining importance across all the megatrends: for example, compound semiconductor-based power devices, in particular GaN and SiC, as well as photonic devices, including miniLED and microLED.
Their manufacturing is rocketing for automotive and consumer applications, and ALD equipment sales are expected to increase with impressive CAGRs of 12 percent for power and 30 percent CAGR for photonics. The growth is further strengthened by the high wafer production volume of CIS devices, silicon power electronics, and advanced packaging - mainly Wafer Level Encapsulation - used across all MtM applications.
Secondly, the global semiconductor market is favourable. Chip shortages across all markets and More-than-Moore devices have pushed manufacturers to announce fab capacity expansion worldwide.
“This is an excellent opportunity to deploy new materials and processes that improve device performance,” argues Taguhi Yeghoyan from Yole. And she adds: “The ALD ecosystem and supply chain actors, traditionally tightly interrelated, now collaborate even more to accelerate ALD adoption. These include ALD process developers such as academic and R&D institutes, precursor suppliers (off-shelf and customized), equipment subpart providers, as well as inspection and metrology system providers.”
Moreover, fab expansions concern not only the leading manufacturing players but also smaller production sites, giving emerging ALD equipment vendors a growth opportunity.
The 2020 ALD equipment market is led by 300mm platforms. At Yole, analysts identified the following leading ALD players: ASM International, with 30 percent market share, and TEL, with 18 percent market share, as well as NAURA. All these players are offering 300mm platforms with high average selling price as well as high throughput.
These players are followed by Picosun, specialised in 200 mm platforms, which has 10 percent of ALD market share globally. The company is, however, closely followed by Optorun, Beneq, Plasma-Therm, Oxford Instruments, and Veeco, among others.
Moreover, equipment vendors previously active only in ALD research are now developing their machines for volume production in response to the chip and equipment shortages. All in all, the ongoing global semiconductor market upside gives an optimistic prospect for More-than-Moore ALD equipment vendors’ revenue. However, the ALD market is competitive, and market shares can change significantly in the coming years.
