High-K and ALD CVD Metal Precursors Market

Market Overview

The global high-k and ALD CVD metal precursors market size was valued at USD 563.18 million in 2022. It is estimated to reach USD 1025.52 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 6.89% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

High dielectric constant (High-K) gate dielectrics are utilized in transistors to optimize capacitance and device performance. High-K and CVD ALD metal precursors are cutting-edge materials for fabricating electronic devices such as memory processors and integrated circuits. High-K materials possess a high dielectric constant, allowing them to store more charge than conventional materials, resulting in more efficient electronic devices. These materials are deposited onto substrates using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD).

Metal precursors are substances utilized in the ALD and CVD procedures to deposit the metal components of the high-K material. These metal precursors provide the chemical properties necessary for optimal film growth and deposition control. The semiconductor industry uses high-k and CVD ALD metal precursors to deposit various metals, including titanium, tantalum, tungsten, and others. They are employed in producing various memory products, including flash memory and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).

Highlights

• Interconnect dominates thetechnology segment
• Asia-Pacific is the highest shareholder in the global market

Market Dynamics

Global High-K and ALD CVD Metal Precursors Market Drivers

Surging Demand Across Nanotechnology Applications

The high-K precursor market is expected to be driven by microelectronics, nanotechnology, and nanoelectronics technologies. These technologies have the potential for a wide range of applications in next-generation electronic technology, including lighting, display, imaging, and biological imaging technology. High-K materials are increasingly demanded for various potential applications, including high-charge storage, gate dielectrics, electroactive materials, and capacitors. For instance, high-K precursors are imperative for real applications of embedded passives, majorly capacitors.

The embedded passives are emerging technology for microelectronic system integration, which provides size reduction and performance enhancement advantages for many microelectronic systems. Electronic components are in high demand for military and industrial applications, creating opportunities for the high-k and ALD/CVD metal precursors market. These sectors encourage investments in nanotechnology to develop advanced electronic components, which is expected to favor market growth.

Emerging Applications of High-K Materials in LEDs

Thermal management is among the most challenging issues solid-state lighting manufacturers face, such as LED lighting. The increased use of Chip on Board (COB) LED lighting technology in various applications has also propelled high-K dielectric materials due to their thermal resistance capacity. The dielectric substrate material on the PCB has the biggest effect on the thermal resistance of the overall LED package. Growing focus on the lighting market to replace the backlights in the LCDs is expected to drive demand for high-k materials in the LED technology segment. LEDs provide 60,000 hours of life compared to 1,000 hours for incandescent lights and do not involve highly toxic chemicals such as Hg (mercury) in production.

Additionally, advancements in flexible and stretchable electronics (FSE) have been witnessed over the past few years. The FSE technology, a replacement for rigid silicon chip technology, provides disruptive applications such as wearable sensors, electronics on skin/organs, flexible displays, Internet-of-things, and printed RFID tags on the packaging. The FSE technology would also reduce the overall cost of electronic device fabrication. The growing market for FSE technology would also propel the growth of high-K dielectric substrates and precursors in the market.

Global High-K and ALD CVD Metal Precursors Market Restraints

High Risk of Impurity Levels

The determination of hybrid organic-inorganic films, which may be easily developed, will pose a challenge in the high-k metal precursors market over the coming years. The major limitation of high-k instruments is their slow, thin film formation rate. Thick atomic layers are unnecessary as ALD is used to generate substrates used in nanotechnology and microelectronics. Some substrates may not be used due to their impurity or fragility. The saturated processes coupled with self-limiting surface reactions in high-k ALD reactions are estimated to limit the growth of high-k metal precursors.

Ultrapure metal organics are essential for many microelectronic and optoelectronic applications, with the utmost purity of 99.9999% or more. In order to keep impurity levels below parts per billion (ppb), these ultrapure metal-organic sources need special manufacturing routes. All the high-k metal precursors system materials, such as dopants, MO precursors, ammonia, and hydrogen carrier gas, should be supplied with high purity. SSL product developers can implement high-k precursors by integrating or buying modular drivers or working with discrete components to realize custom drivers that allow thin film materials deposition at low temperatures. The design and selection of appropriate metal-organic precursors are critical for the successful development of new ALD processes.

Global High-K and ALD CVD Metal Precursors Market Opportunities

Technological Advancements and Government Initiatives in the Field of Nanotechnology

In recent years, technological advancements have been made toward the application and synthesis of nanoparticles owing to their unusual chemical and physical properties. Polymer composite materials based on nanoparticles can provide a potential solution to meet the future technological demand regarding the mechanical properties and good processibility of polymers combined with nanoparticles' unique electrical and dielectric properties. Moreover, nanosized particles are preferred for high-k dielectric composite materials because they could help achieve thinner dielectric films leading to a higher capacitance density. Similarly, government bodies in several countries globally are driving investments in the nanotechnology field, thereby creating market growth opportunities. For instance 2020, the U.S. President's 2021 Budget requested USD 1.7 Billion for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).

Regional Analysis

Based on region, the global high-k and ALD CVD metal precursors market is bifurcated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

Asia-Pacific Dominates the Global Market 

Asia-Pacific is the most significant global high-k and ALD CVD metal precursors market shareholder and is predicted to exhibit a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period. The Asia-Pacific regional markets accounted for the largest revenue share of the high-k ALD/CVD metal precursors market. South Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan own the maximum number of fabrication plants globally. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific region is the center of the market for consumer electronics, which numerous fabrication facilities in the region serve. The region is expected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period due to factors like China's above-average demand for electronic products and the ongoing outsourcing of the production of electronic equipment to China. Due to the rising demand for semiconductor devices in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) nations, the rising demand for low-cost, highly portable, and diverse electronic products for end-user is also expected to boost regional market growth significantly.

Furthermore, cheap labor costs and favorable economic conditions in the Asia-Pacific are the major driving factors for the significant share in high-k and ALD/CVD metal precursors growth over the forecast period. In 2019 and 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in China resulted in strict lockdown situations, which included the shutdown of manufacturing operations and warehouses and impacted the global shipments and exports of automotive vehicles, consumer electronics, and other industrial equipment and devices, thereby restraining the market in this region.

North America is estimated to exhibit a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period. North America is also anticipated to experience significant growth during the forecast period. The proliferation of high-performance semiconductors in devices and various industries like the automotive and consumer electronics their demand. Increasing R&D efforts in nanotechnologies used by the semiconductor industry is the most important factor driving industry growth in the United States. In addition, the increasing demand for fabricating semiconductor devices, such as 3D-stacked ICs, with multifaceted architecture and using cost-effective and seamless manufacturing processes, such as ALD, is anticipated to drive market growth in the region.

In Europe, the foundry and logic chips market is growing rapidly, while automotive chip markets are falling from low levels. Similarly, smartphone market markets are also falling, while memory markets are starting to recover. Moreover, most European companies supply atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology and Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment for foundry, logic, and memory chips to equipment for high-end chip packaging. However, in 2020, COVID-19 impacted overall semiconductor businesses and manufacturing activities in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The consumer electronics, automotive, and smartphone demand has declined particularly in the first half of 2020 and is expected to recover gradually by 2021, which will drive market expansion.

In Latin America, the increasing strength of regional markets and the continued global expansion of electronics manufacturing are turning attention to microelectronics business opportunities, thereby driving the demand for the high-k and ALD/CVD metal precursors market over the forecast period. The new investments in front-end and back-end semiconductor manufacturing create opportunities in the Latin American microelectronics industry. Further, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina have the resources, a growing skilled workforce, investment, and infrastructure, but challenges remain in bringing largescale semiconductor manufacturing businesses to the region.

In the Middle East and Africa region, the growing technologies such as Programmable DSP IPs and Embedded systems are bound to provide many opportunities shortly. The UAE government has prioritized a commitment to "smart," encouraging the application and adoption of exponential technologies (like Artificial Intelligence (AI)) to transform society, government, and business.

Segmental Analysis

The global high-k and ALD CVD metal precursors market is segmented by technology.

Based on technology, the global high-k and ALD CVD metal precursors market is bifurcated into interconnects, capacitors, and gates. 

The interconnects segment dominates the global market and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 5.01% over the forecast period. The interconnect technology segment dominated the market. Interconnect is a fabrication technique important to manufacturing and developing successful advanced integrated circuit (IC) devices. Continuing advances in interconnection technology are crucial to continued improvements in IC performance and cost. Moreover, chipmakers are moving towards new materials such as ruthenium (Ru) and cobalt (Co) to solve the resistance-capacitance (RC) problem, creating opportunities for market growth.

High-k dielectric layers are progressively prevalent in definite electronic components or products like non-volatile memories, organic thin-film transistors, OLEDs, DRAMs, and advanced Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitors. For instance, Zirconium oxide and Titanium oxide are two specific examples of metal oxide dielectric materials that display substantial promise in serving as a high k dielectric material for implementation in DRAM capacitors.

The high-k dielectric and metal gate technology helps to replace the conventional gate stack of polysilicon and silicon dioxide layers. The research developments on the atomic layer deposition of the n-type and the p-type work function metals are expected to progress with the technical evaluation. For instance, for gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAA-FETs) in future generations, an ideal dual metal scheme is expected to be all atomic layer deposition stacks, with the structure of Si/SiO2/HfO2/TiAlC/TiN/W for n-type field-effect transistors (FETs), and Si/ TiN/SiO2/HfO2/W for p-type field-effect transistors (FETs), or replacing the TiAlC with TaAlC.

Recent Developments

• September 2022- Techinsights reported that Samsung had supplied its DDR5 DRAM with a high-k metal gate process to the Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer G.Skill. According to the company, the chip was utilized in the G.Skill Trident Z5 series memory module. Techinsights predicts that high-k metal gate, or HKMG, technology will become the industry standard for new DRAMs, with Samsung now commercializing the technology on DDR5 following their implementation of GDDR6.
• November 2022- SK Hynix had effectively implemented a breakthrough solution dubbed HKMG, a thin High-K metal gate, to replace existing gate oxide to improve reliability and scaling-up up transistors on DRAM chipsets for mobile devices to achieve higher performance while consuming less power. The second-largest DRAM manufacturer in the world announced that it has begun mass-producing HKMG-based LPDDR5X (low-power double data rate 5X).