As per reports, in 2021, there are already 10 billion internet of things (IoT) devices active around the world, and by 2030, this number is set to cross 25 billion! Essentially, any electrical or electronic product that is integrated with sensors to capture a variety of data and an internet connection to share that data with another such device or a central control room is termed as an IoT device. In many applications, such as smart buildings and factory machines, the IoT devices need to be small. Thus, electronics companies are shifting away from conventional semiconductor manufacturing to the system-on-chip (SOC) arrangement, in which the sensor, processor, electronic circuitry, and memory are embedded into one small chip.
Considering the rapid miniaturization of IoT devices with the help of the SOC technology, P&S Intelligence expects the silicon on insulator (SOI) market revenue to reach $2,285.5 million by 2024, growing from $684.8 million in 2018 at a 22.7% CAGR between 2019 and 2024. This is because SOI fabrication, wherein an insulator is sandwiched between two layers of a semiconducting material, enables the creation of SOCs. Hence, with the growing demand for SoCs for IoT and miniaturized electronic devices, the adoption of SOI fabrication will rise around the world.
Moreover, the burgeoning demand for smartphones will drive the usage of SOIs. With the shift of mobile phone manufacturing to Asia-Pacific (APAC) and increase in the production output of consumer electronics companies, smartphone prices continue to come down. This, coupled with the rising disposable income in developing countries, is pushing up smartphone sales. Further, with the wide availability of 3G and 4G connectivity and strong focus on deploying 5G networks, smartphone sales will continue to boom, thereby driving the production of SOIs.
As a result, several public agencies and private companies are increasing their investments in this space. For instance, the city of Chengdu in China signed an agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES U.S. Inc. in 2017 for setting up a fully depleted-SOI (FD-SOI) ecosystem that would include numerous university programs and design centers in China. In all, more than $100 million are being pumped into the SOI sector in Chengdu so that state-of-the-art microchips can be designed for automobiles, IoT devices, mobile phones, and other next-generation systems.
Apart from FD-SOIs, the demand for which is set to grow the fastest in the coming years on account of their wide applications in ultra-low-power consumer electronics, partially depleted-SOIs (PD-SOI), photonic-SOIs, imager-SOIs, power-SOIs, and radiofrequency-SOIs (RF-SOI) are manufactured by semiconductor foundries. Among these, RF-SOIs are sold in the highest numbers because of the rising demand for long-term evolution (LTE) smartphones. Since the entire telecommunications process is driven by the RF technology, RF-SOIs are essential for smartphones.
Currently, APAC is the largest silicon on insulator market because it is home to the world’s most-productive consumer electronics industry. Some of the largest smartphone manufacturers on earth, including Sony, Samsung, MI, Vivo, and Oppo, are headquartered in the region. Moreover, APAC is home to TSMC, the largest semiconductor fabrication company in the world, which leads to easy access to SOIs for regional end users. Similarly, with China, India, Japan, and South Korea constructing numerous smart cities, the demand for smart buildings integrated with IoT will rise, thereby driving the demand for SOIs.
Hence, with the growing adoption of IoT and miniaturization of consumer electronic devices, the requirement for SOIs will continue booming.
