Soitec triples FDSOI wafer sales
Soitec reported revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, of €140.3 million, up 43 percent on a year before. Sales of 200mm-diameter wafers were up 21 percent and sales of 300mm wafers up 95 percent. As a result sales of 300mm wafers exceeded those of 200mm wafer for the first time. For the full financial year Soitec’s sales were €444 million, up 42 percent compared with FY18.
Paul Boudre, Soitec’s CEO, commented: “It has been a productive quarter for Soitec in terms of new research alliances and strategic partnerships signed in the Silicon Valley, in Singapore and in China. In the meantime, we enhanced our industrial relationship with our Shanghai-based partner, opened a direct sales channel in China and expanded our collaboration with Samsung Foundry.”
Soitec divides its sales into RFSOI, Power-SOI, Photonics-SOI, imager-SOI and digital FDSOI. It also has legacy partially-depleted silicon-on-insulator (PDSOI) sales.
Sales of RFSOI 200-mm continued to do well but over the last year there has been increased adoption of its RFSOI 300-mm wafers, Soitec said. Power-SOI was marginally higher both on a sequential and year-in-year basis. The level of Photonics-SOI sales in the fourth quarter of FY’19 was also higher both on a sequential basis and on a year-on-year basis.
But digital FDSOI represents a major share of Soitec’s business and sales in the fourth quarter of FY19 recorded significant growth both on a sequential basis and on a year-on-year basis.
This was the case for FDSOI wafers for AI processors and connectivity SoCs targeting 65nm, 28nm and 22nm nodes and initial shipments to support 18nm FDSOI. In the fourth quarter one significant customer delivery propelled FDSOI wafer sales to be twice what they were in the previous quarter and three times what they were in the same quarter a year before.
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