Technavio projects the global semiconductor glass wafer market to post a CAGR of more than 6% during the forecast period. The emergence of advanced and compact consumer electronic devices is a key driver, which is expected to impact market growth.

Consumer electronic devices have witnessed a massive transformation over the last five years. Feature phones have been replaced by smartphones, PCs by laptops, and now laptops are being replaced by tablets. Cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs are being replaced by light-emitting diode (LED) TVs and organic LED (OLED) TVs. Due to increase in unit shipments of tablets and smartphones over the last five years, the demand for ICs (including MEMS devices and CMOS image sensors) used in these devices is on the rise. As semiconductor glass wafers are integral to ICs, rising demand for ICs will generate strong demand for semiconductor glass wafers over the forecast period.

In this report, Technavio highlights the growing proliferation of IoT and connected devices as one of the key emerging trends to drive the global semiconductor glass wafer market:

Growing proliferation of IoT and connected devices

IoT is a network of interrelated computing devices comprising mechanical and digital machines or objects that possess the ability to transfer data over a network without human-to-computer interaction. More than 30 billion IoT devices, generating about 50 trillion GBs of data, are expected to be connected through IoT by 2022. IoT enables devices to collect data using sensors and actuators and transmits data to a centralized location on a real-time basis, which empowers the user to take an informed decision. Thus, the adoption of IoT is increasing in several market segments, such as consumer electronics, automotive, and medical.

According to a senior analyst at Technavio for semiconductor equipment research, “Sensors and MEMS are an integral part of IoT devices and are manufactured from semiconductor glass wafers. It is projected that a total of one trillion sensors will be produced in 2020 to support the demand for IoT devices. This will require a significant production of semiconductor glass wafers, which can be met by several fabs. Growing applications of IoT will drive the construction of fabs.”