Beneq contributes to the surge of compound semiconductors – An interview by Yole Group

2023 marks a decline in memory and logic chipmaker revenue and CapEx, an adjustment after three consecutive years of growth. However, More-than-Moore (MtM) chipmakers’ revenues and CapEx growth rates show very different dynamics.

According to the Wafer Fab Equipment Market Monitor, developed by Yole Intelligence’s semiconductor manufacturing & testing team, the MtM device 2023 revenue increased by a single-digit YoY, while CapEx remains at a very high level of US$24 billion. Among all MtM device groups, compound semiconductor chipmakers are gearing up heavily in Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) to enable their technological advancements and future investment returns. The compound semiconductor industry has a real attraction for the semiconductor players. Therefore, according to Yole Intelligence’s Status of the Compound Semiconductor Industry report (2023 edition coming soon – More info.), driven by megatrends such as vehicle electrification and more efficient consumer power supply solutions, the power SiC and GaN device markets are poised to grow beyond US$9 billion and US$2 billion by 2028, respectively.

This creates an excellent opportunity for smaller WFE vendors like Beneq to thrive.

Beneq offers innovative solutions in this segment, using a more comprehensive Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology. Moreover, Beneq ticks all the necessary blocks for growth: independence and flexibility in equipment technology development, modular design, the know-how of ALD use in various end-device and end-markets, presence at the interface between labs and fabs, financial backing to grow WFE production capacity, and field engineers worldwide.

Yole Group had the opportunity to interview Mikko Söderlund, Head of Semiconductor ALD Sales at Beneq. With Taguhi Yeghoyan, Senior Technology & Market Analyst at Yole Intelligence, they shared their vision of the semiconductor industry evolution and analyzed the technology status.

Discover today a snapshot of this interview!

Taguhi Yeghoyan (TY): Please introduce yourself and your company.

Mikko Söderlund (MS): I am Mikko Söderlund, Head of Semiconductor ALD Sales at Beneq, the home of atomic layer deposition. In 1984, we established the world’s first industrial production using ALD. We are headquartered in Espoo, Finland – close to Aalto University and the University of Helsinki, two epicenters of fundamental ALD research.

TY: Beneq provides ALD equipment for various end-market applications with equipment ranging from table-top to large area and high volume manufacturing equipment. Can you provide an overview of your portfolio?

MS: As Beneq Oy, we lead the market with products for semiconductor device fabrication (Transform®, Transform® 300, and Prodigy^TM), R&D (TFS200, TFS500, R2),  3D and batch production (P400A, P800, P1500), ultra-fast spatial ALD (C2R), and roll-to-roll ALD (Genesis).

TY: Semiconductors are among other end-applications where Beneq is active. Would you elaborate on Beneq’s ALD equipment provided to the semiconductor industry?

MS: Beneq offers 3 different ALD products for semiconductor IDMs and fab customers.

All of the above products offer SECS/GEM communication capabilities and comply with SEMI S2.  

TY: What are your recent developments for the semiconductor industry?

MS: Beneq’s Semiconductor business continues on a strong growth path driven by applications in the More-than-Moore market. In particular, we are seeing strong interest and an inflection point for ALD in GaN technologies across Power, RF, and Micro-LED, wherein engineering of the GaN-dielectric interface is key to achieving the best device performance. We achieve this with our differentiated sequential plasma and thermal batch ALD solution wherein we apply a plasma pre-clean and interfacial layer deposition (e.g., AlN, SiNx) in the PEALD process module and continue to deposit a thicker dielectric layer (Al₂O₃, SiO₂, HfO₂ or laminate thereof) in the thermal batch module to enable double-digit wafer-per-hour throughput.

Over the past year, we have also seen a growing trend in SiC to move away from thermal oxidation towards deposited SiO₂ gate oxide and high-k dielectrics such as Al₂O₃. We expect in-situ surface treatment and PEALD interfacial layers to play a significant role in manufacturing high-performance SiC MOSFETs. Beneq is actively developing solutions for this market, and our process specialist Dr. Andrii Voznoi will be presenting our latest developments towards an integrated ALD gate dielectric and passivation stack for SiC MOSFET at the ICSCRM conference in Sorrento, Italy, in September.

TY: What is your opinion on future ALD growth in the semiconductor industry?

MS: Focusing in on the MtM part of the overall ALD semiconductor market, 300 mm equipment has been the largest part of the market and centered around CIS. Though growing less than the overall MtM market, this wafer size will remain predominant during the coming years, with an expected share of 56% of the ALD wafer passes by 2026. Furthermore, other than CIS, semiconductors made at 300 mm such as Power Devices and IC’s, embedded memory, Micro-OLED and MicroLED are adopting ALD. This is driving many ALD equipment providers to upgrade their systems to handle 300 mm wafers. Nevertheless, 200 mm MtM technologies and markets in particular SiC and GaN based are expected to experience steep growth in the coming years. In addition, smaller wafers, down to 3”, driven by compound semiconductors, must not be neglected in equipment portfolios. Looking forward, the versatility of the ALD platform remains essential for the adoption of ALD equipment in the MtM markets.

TY: Would you like to add any closing thoughts for our readers?

MS: It’s an exciting time for ALD companies with multiple potential technology inflection points across the MtM markets. Stay tuned and enjoy the summer!