Spintronics Market

Market Overview

The global spintronics market was valued at USD 590.12 million in 2021. It is projected to reach USD 10,781.60 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 38.1% during the forecast period (2022-2030). 

Spintronics is a new technology in its early stage of development that involves the charge, spin, and magnetic moment of electrons to transmit electrical signals. It is fundamentally different from conventional electronics technology and more power efficient in the transfer and storage of data. Spintronics technology is primarily used to manufacture hard disks, magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), and magnetic sensors.

The saturation in innovations in conventional electronics has led to the rapid adoption of technology like spintronics that has distinct features and several advantages, which can replace existing electronic products such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) with magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). Moreover, the advantages of spintronics technology will revolutionize the electronics industry as it is cost-effective, faster, and consumes low power. Thus, the global spintronics market is expected to witness exponential growth over the forecast period.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Increasing Demand Due to Low Power Consumption

The manufacturers are developing technologies to lower the power consumption of the processors and other electronic components to improve the battery efficiency of laptops, smartphones, and electric vehicles. Manufacturers like Qualcomm, Intel, and Samsung are working on spintronics technology to use them in processor cache memory to lower the power consumption up to 80% than presently used cache memory. Similarly, the spintronics technology used in MRAM gives an edge over DRAM due to its low power consumption and faster speed. As silicon usage in traditional electronic technology reaches its maximum limit and hits the saturation level, the use of spintronics technology will increase exponentially, enabling the new era of electronic products with much faster transfer speed and improved battery life.

Rising Demand for Faster Data Transfer and More Storage Capacity in Compact Size

Spintronics technology utilizes the charge, spin, and magnetic moment of the electrons, which makes it much faster than conventional electronic technology. The data transfer speed has reached a saturation level. Currently, increasing the data transfer speed in the existing technology is challenging, which utilizes only the charge of electrons. Spintronics technology has proved to be a better replacement for the current electronic technology due to the commercial availability of MRAM, which is faster than DRAM. These days, hard disc drives, flash memories, and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) are the primary methods for storing digital information (HDD). The most important problem with HDDs is that their operation depends on the mechanical movement of their two main parts, a storage disc and a read/write head. The mechanical movement decreases dependability, slows operation, and uses more energy. In contrast, spintronics has assisted in overcoming this slow operation in the HDDs and helped to increase the data transfer speed and storage capacity.

Market Restraint

Lack of Awareness and Low-Quality Products

There is a lack of awareness about spintronics technology due to the less commercialized products, which are still in a very early developmental stage. In the current stage, a few low-quality products with spintronics technology can enter the market to capture some revenue from some curious consumers, lowering the confidence in the technology and prolonging its faster adoption in mainstream electronic products. These factors can create a hurdle in the growth of the global spintronics market.

Market Opportunities

New Innovations in the Spintronics Technology

Due to the industry's increased investment in research and development and the resulting growth in industry understanding of spintronics' benefits, improvements are being made to the technology's applications. Scientists from EPFL University (École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) have demonstrated that electrons can jump through spins much more quickly than previously believed, which is a massive boost for spintronic technologies. In addition to spinning around atoms, electrons can also spin around themselves and transition between different spin states. A characteristic that can be used to create hard drives of the future. However, "spin cross-over" has been criticized for being ineffectively slow. Through ultrafast measurements, researchers from EPFL have established that electrons can cross spins at least 100,000 times faster than previously believed. The discovery has enormous ramifications for fundamental physics and has the potential to advance spintronics technology.

In terms of research, Tohoku University researchers in Japan have created the smallest, highest-performing magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) ever. Their efforts are anticipated to hasten the development of ultrahigh-density, low-power, high-performance non-volatile memory for numerous data-hungry applications, including internet-of-things connectivity, artificial intelligence, and autonomous mobility. Furthermore, innovations will produce more energy-efficient processors and data storage devices and increase their adoption in applications like electric vehicles, MRAM, and magnetic sensors.

Regional Analysis

The global spintronics market is bifurcated into four regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

North America Dominates the Global Market

North America is the most significant shareholder in the global spintronics market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36.5% during the forecast period. North America is one of the market's most prominent investors and adopters, which is associated with the significant research carried out by regional businesses and the expanding acceptance of technologies among regional end-user industries. Most of the key spintronics market end-user industries are making huge advances in the region, allowing vendors to grow significantly over the forecast period. For instance, the region is experiencing significant growth in sectors like cloud services, enterprise storage, server RAID, industrial automation and IoT, and telecom infrastructure, fueling demand for cutting-edge technologies like spintronics.

Europe is expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.10%, generating USD 3,536.56 million during the forecast period. Research and development are also increasing in Europe owing to the initiatives taken by several European companies to develop low-power-consuming electronic devices based on spintronics technology. A European network called The SpinTronicFactory was established in 2016 with the goal of advancing spintronics-based research and innovation in Europe. It is founded on a binding Memorandum of Understanding between European academia and business players. The spintronicfactory's primary goals are to increase spintronic applications' economic impact in the EU, develop collaborations between various H2020 programs and Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), establish connections with other industrial networks, such as EFFRA and AENEAS, create new synergies between collaborators and potential cooperation for upcoming EU calls, and increase spintronics' visibility and propagation in the EU.

Asia-Pacific region is also growing at a substantial CAGR, owing to the rapid technological advancements in China, South Korea, Japan, and India. The major automotive and consumer electronics markets include China, India, South Korea, and Japan, which will significantly impact the region's consumption and demand for the products in the upcoming years. Moreover, opportunities in the market for manufacturers are anticipated due to the region's rising demand for electric vehicles. Additionally, China is one of the world's top producers of consumer electronics, which presents opportunities for the sector to expand in the future. The rising demand for magnetic sensors, storage devices, and processors across automotive, consumer electronics, and industrial applications will contribute to the growth of the spintronics market in the region.

LAMEA region is projected to contribute to the spintronics market growth due to the use of advanced technology in the UAE and Saudi Arabia (KSA). The other regions of Africa and Latin America also require faster and more energy-efficient computing products manufactured with spintronics-based devices that can be effectively used in the region. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is significantly investing to become a regional tech power. UAE entered the semiconductor industry by becoming the company's largest investor in the American manufacturer Global Foundries (GF). The semiconductors sector is one of the most capital-intensive in the world. UAE's strategic investment in the field is a part of a larger plan to shift to deep tech and establish the nation as a leader under Economic Vision 2030. Cruise, a company, backed by General Motors and Honda, plans to introduce its first robotic taxi in Dubai in 2023. By 2030, it's expected to have 4,000 autonomous vehicles on the road.

Moreover, Brazil seeks Taiwan's semiconductor assistance to expand the advanced chip industry in the largest economy in Latin America. Brazilian and Taiwanese officials and businesspeople from the global tech hub are coordinating their efforts to help the largest economy in Latin America grow its budding semiconductor industry. According to reports from a business council meeting supported by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs that was held in Taipei on Tuesday, Taiwan has the resources and expertise to assist Brazil in realizing its plans to develop a domestic semiconductor industry. Brazil's USD 50 billion technology sector would grow with more collaboration with Taiwan. These recent activities in the LAMEA region will push the growth of the spintronics market over the forecast period.

Segmental Analysis

The global spintronics market is segmented by device type, application, and end user.

Based on device types, the global market is bifurcated into metal-based devices and semiconductor-based devices.

The semiconductor-based device segment is the highest contributor to the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.7% during the forecast period. The larger share is linked with a more number of benefits as compared to metal-based devices. Strong ferromagnetism is necessary for the development of spintronics, and semiconductor materials exhibit weak ferromagnetism. The ability of the material to provide ferromagnetism at room temperature affects the choice of materials for semiconductor spintronics. Semiconductor spins are easily controlled and manipulated, and devices based on spintronics are simple to integrate with current semiconductor technology. Spin-transistors, spin-LEDs, memory devices, and optical switches that operate at terahertz frequencies, among other multi-functional devices, can be produced using semiconductor spintronics in conjunction with photonics and magnetics.

In the semiconductor-based device segment, the giant magnetoresistance-based device (GMRs) sub-segment is leading the market due to its higher penetration in the automotive industry and HDD manufacturing. A non-magnetic layer is sandwiched between two ferromagnetic layers in a GMR drive head, one of which has a fixed magnetic field direction, and the other layer is free to align with the magnetic field encoded on the disc. It is known as scattering when an electron's spin state changes as it moves through a magnetic field. Electrons' random, distributed spin states cause a higher resistance to electric current. GMR technology significantly lowers resistance, accelerating data transfer, by lining up the spin state of the electrons with the magnetic field in the layers of the drive head.

Based on application, the global market is bifurcated into hard disks, magnetic ram, electric vehicles and industrial motors, microwave devices, and magnetic sensors.

The magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) segment owns the highest market share and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 40.4% during the forecast period. The larger market share is linked with the commercialized products of MRAM, focusing on the electronics market that has a lot of potential for further growth. MRAM is used in several electronic devices, including smartphones, laptops, smart wearables, robotics, automotive, aerospace, and healthcare devices. MRAM can read and write faster than DRAM, uses less power, and is a non-volatile memory. Due to this, MRAM is considered to replace DRAM and increase its range of applications over a period of time, from being used in system computing to data storage. MRAM also overcomes the shortcomings of NAND flash drives with superior performance and less wear.

Based on end-user, the global market is bifurcated into automotive, industrial, consumer electronics, healthcare, and IT and telecom.

The consumer electronics segment is leading with a substantial market share owing to the adoption of MRAM in several consumer-centric products such as smartphones, smart wearables, healthcare devices, laptops, and electric vehicles. Innovations pushing the advantages of spintronics technology will further help in the exponential growth of the market in the consumer electronics segment due to the high number of sales and revenue involved in this specific segment.

Recent Developments

• August 2022- Everspin Technologies, Inc. announced the new engineering samples of its high-density STT-MRAM, the EM128LX, combining code and data memory on the same device allows system designers to save money, power and space thanks to the increased density and up to 233 megabytes/second full read and write bandwidth.