According to market research firm Gartner Inc., worldwide semiconductor revenues are expected to be around $337.8 billion in 2015, down 0.8% over the previous year. Gartner notes
that this would be the first decline in worldwide semiconductor revenue since 2012.
In 2012, revenue dropped 2.6%. While the drop in 2015 is not as steep as in 2012, the performance of the semiconductor sector has been disappointing. At the start of 2015, Gartner had predicted 2.2% growth in worldwide semiconductor revenue.
The decline is due to downward revisions in the outlook for major applications that drive the semiconductor market, according to Gartner’s Research Vice President, Andrew Norwood.
Norwood noted that the stronger dollar also had a negative impact on revenue. However, the outlook for 2016 is much more positive. For 2016, Gartner expects semiconductor revenue to increase 1.9% to $344.1 billion. Gartner expects an oversupply in dynamic random
access memory (DRAM) in 2016.
The bullish outlook for the worldwide semiconductor market augurs well for Toronto-based POET Technologies Inc. (TSX-Venture:PTK), a developer of opto-electronics fabrication process.
POET believes that the advanced opto-electronics fab processes platform allows substantial improvements in energy efficiency, component cost and size in the production of smart optical components, the engines driving applications ranging from data centers to consumer products.
This morning, POET Technologies announced that it has entered into a multi-year development and production supply agreement with EpiWorks Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of compound semiconductor epitaxial wafers.
As per the terms of the agreement, EpiWorks will manufacture wafers for POET’s Monolithic Optoelectronics process platform on its advanced Metal Organic Optoelectronics process platform using its advanced Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) production toolset.
Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, CEO of POET Technologies, said that the partnership is POET’s latest advance in its lab-to-fab commercialization initiative in calendar 2016. Dr. Venkatesan further said that using high-performance, manufacturable epi-wafer technology is a key to this initiative and the company is happy to be working with EpiWorks for MOCVD-based development and production.
Dr. Venkatesan added that the company is pleased with the early promising results EpiWorks showed with MOCVD, which will provide a more manufacturable alternate path to Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) techniques and should accelerate the company’s technology
maturity. The supply agreement was formalized to enable further acceleration of POET’s program.
EpiWorks CEO Quesnell Hartmann added that by establishing a development and supply agreement, the two companies expect to be working closely together for several years.
Even through parsing all the sophisticated words being thrown around in the Company press release was a challenge, investors seem to be on the same page with the lingo, bidding up shares of PTK around 7% in today’s trading with strong volume supporting the move higher.
