IQE, a UK-based epitaxial wafer foundry, is rapidly expanding its VCSEL capacity at its new facility. According to reports, IQE is an independent epitaxial wafer foundry listed in London. Sales in the first half of 2018 increased by 4%. Due to the rising demand for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), the company is expected to continue to maintain Growth momentum.
Headquartered near Cardiff, IQE is currently installing a range of reaction equipment for VCSEL production at its new facility in Newport. These devices will be used to deposit critical and complex light-emitting semiconductor layers on 6-inch gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers, which will then be delivered to customers to further manufacture green laser pointer chips and components.
It is said that the construction and renovation of the Newport foundry is progressing smoothly, and now more than 20 VCSEL customers have signed up.
"In the first half of 2018, five reactors have been successfully installed. The other two reactors have been delivered in August 2018. There are plans to have three more equipment in the second half of the year. The total number will increase to 10 in the second half of 2018," IQE said. The announcement announced that “equipment commissioning and verification is currently underway and it is expected that initial production will begin in the second half of 2018.”
Compared to last year, current market participation should lead to significant changes in shipments. Because, at the time, VCSEL sales for smartphone 3D sensing and gesture recognition applications were dominated by a single customer.
This means that the proportion of IQE related to photonics will increase gradually in the next few months and years of revenue, which is very different from the company's business to date. Previously, the company's revenue was often dominated by the sale of epitaxial wafers of RF components such as power amplifiers.
In the first half of this year, the bias in this revenue ratio remained significant: sales of its wireless applications accounted for 47.8 million pounds in the company's total revenue of 70.4 million pounds.
Sales related to photonics (including VCSEL and Indium Phosphide InP laser structures for optical communication green laser pointer transmitters) account for less than £19 million.
But in the near future, with the rapid spread of VCSEL technology on Android smartphones, IQE’s financial guidance shows that “in the next three to five years, the company’s sales related to photonics products will be compounded by 50%. The annual growth rate (CAGR) is growing. At the same time, sales of the company's wireless applications will grow at less than 10% per year."