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The power electronics industry is a key part of the semiconductor history. Power electronics markets are steady evolving and continuously diffusing its innovations through the overall semiconductor industry. Numerous mergers & acquisitions (Fairchild Semiconductor and On Semiconductor, Linear Technology and Analog Devices, both in 2016), the emergence of GaN technology, the adoption of SiC solutions (BYD is now proposing a SiC-based on-board chargers) illustrate quite well the dynamism of the power electronics industry.

e-mobility has become the new Eldorado of the Li-ion batteries. Including EV/HEV , electric buses, trucks, and bikes, e-mobility overtakes consumer electronics market segment to represent 72% of the total rechargeable Li-ion battery cell market’s value in 2022. Yole Développement (Yole) announces a US$59.1 billion total market in 2022, thanks to a 20% CAGR from 2016 to 2022.

Used either as a permanent or as a temporary material within the semiconductor manufacturing processes, glass plays a key role in the semiconductor industry. It is today already implemented as a mature solution, in several market segments such as IR cut filter for CIS technology, microfluidics devices and some actuators and sensors.

Initially present in niche markets like MEMS devices, 3D integration is entering in a new era. Fueled by increasing bandwidth needs for moving data in cloud-computing and supercomputing applications, performance-driven markets have adopted 3D stacked technologies in a row.

New functionalities such as voice/image recognition, language processing… all these new needs directly contribute to the development of deep learning, datacenter networking, AR/VR, and autonomous driving applications, all based on 3D integration technologies.

According to Yole Développement’s “3D TSV and 2.5D Business Update - Market and Technology Trends 2017”, the number of 12” equivalent wafers will increase at a CAGR of 20% over the next five years, going from 1.3M in 2016 to 4M in 2022.

Yole Développement had the opportunity to speak with Farhang Yazdani, CEO of BroadPak. We talked about the company’s services, position in the industry and outlook on the market. The discussion follows.

It’s an obvious thing to say, but the semiconductor industry is all about semiconductor materials. However, due to its excellent chemical, mechanical, electrical, and optical properties, glass applications are constantly evolving. Glass is therefore playing an increasingly important role in the semiconductor market, adopting various functions in integrated circuit (IC) semiconductor devices.

Yole Développement’s latest report, entitled ‘Fingerprint Sensors for Consumer Electronics’, highlights the rapid evolution of fingerprint sensors from the first localized coated button in 2013 to seamless in-display fingerprint detection by 2020. Qualcomm's latest under-display fingerprint announcement exemplifies this evolution, but may be a little bit ahead of what can currently be done in the industry. Yole and other industry players were quite surprised by the timing and the promises made.