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| Company type | Société Anonyme – SA (French publicly-traded limited company) |
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| ISIN | FR0013227113  |
| Founded | 1992; 33 years ago (1992) |
| Founder | André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé [fr] & Jean-Michel Lamure |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Pierre Barnabé [fr] (CEO and chairman) |
| Products | Innovative semiconductor materials dedicated to three key markets: mobile communications, automotive and smart objects |
| Revenue |  €1.09 billion (2022–2023) |
| €233 million (2022–2023) | |
| Owner | Free-float (61.03%) BPI France (10.35%) NSIG Sunrise SARL (10.35%) Blackrock (8.91%) CEA Investment (7.31%) Employees (1.41%) Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. (0.63%) Treasury Shares (0.01%) |
Number of employees | 2,044 |
| Website | soitec |
| Footnotes / references "MarketWatch: Soitec S.A." | |
Soitec is a Frenchmultinational corporation that manufacturessubstrates used in the manufacturing ofsemiconductors.
Soitec'ssemiconductor materials are used to manufacturechips which are used insmartphones,tablets,computers, IT servers, and data centres. Soitec's products are also found in electronic components used in cars, connected objects (Internet of Things), as well as industrial and medical equipment.
Soitec's flagship product issilicon on insulator (SOI). Materials produced by Soitec come in the form of substrates (also called "wafers"). These are produced as ultra-thin disks that are 200 to 300 mm in diameter and are less than 1 mm thick. These wafers are then etched and cut to be used formicrochips in electronics.[citation needed]
Soitec was founded in 1992 nearGrenoble inFrance by two researchers fromCEA Leti, an institute for micro- andnanotechnologies research created by theFrench Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA). The pair developedSmart Cut™ technology to industrializeSilicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafers, and built their first production unit inBernin, in theIsère department of France.
Soitec's offering initially targeted the electronics market. At the end of the 2000s, Soitec launched into thesolar energy and lighting markets, exploiting new openings for its materials and technologies. In 2015, the company announced that it would be refocusing its efforts on its core business:electronics.
Soitec employs about 2000 people throughout the world and currently has production units in France and inSingapore. The company also has R&D centers and commercial offices in France, the United States (Arizona andCalifornia),China,South Korea,Japan andTaiwan.
Historically, Soitec has marketedSilicon on Insulator (SOI) as a high performance material for manufacturing electronic chips for computers, game consoles and servers, as well as the automotive industry.With the explosion of mobile products (tablets, smartphones, etc.) on the consumer electronics market, Soitec has also developed new materials forradio-frequency components, multimedia processors, and power electronics.
With the rapid growth of theInternet of Things,wearables, and other mobile devices, new needs have arisen in terms of performance and energy efficiency of electronic components. For this market, Soitec offers materials that help reduce the energy consumed by chips, improve their information processing speed, and support the needs ofhigh-speed Internet.
In the solar energy market Soitec acquiredConcentrix Solar, then manufactured and suppliedConcentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems from 2009 to 2015.[3] Research to create a new generation offour-junction solar cells led Soitec to set a world record in December 2014 with a cell capable of converting 46% of solar rays into electricity. Soitec announced in January 2015 that it would be leaving the solar market after several important solar plant projects ended.[4][5]
In the lighting industry, Soitec operates upstream and downstream of theLED value chain.
Upstream, the company uses its expertise in semiconductor materials to develop substrates made fromgallium nitride (GaN), the base material used inLEDs.
Downstream, Soitec is developing a range of industrial partnerships to commercialize new professional lighting solutions[buzzword] (urban, office and transport infrastructure lighting).
Soitec is developing numerous technologies for its different sectors of activity.
Developed by CEA-Leti in collaboration with Soitec,[6] this technology has been patented by researcher Michel Bruel.[7] It makes possible the transfer of a thin layer of monocristalline material from a donor substrate to another by combining ion implantation and bonding by molecular adhesion. Soitec uses Smart Cut™ technology to mass-produce SOI wafers. Compared with classic bulk silicon, SOI enables a significant reduction in energy leakage in the substrate, and improves the performance of the circuit in which it is used.
The technology involves the transfer of partially or fully processed wafers onto other wafers. It can be adapted to wafer diameters of 150 mm to 300 mm and is compatible with a wide variety of substrates, such as silicon, glass and sapphire.
Smart Stacking™ technology is used for back-side illuminated image sensors, where it improves sensitivity and enables a smaller pixel size, as well as in smartphone radio-frequency circuits. It also opens new doors to 3D integration.
Soitec hasepitaxy expertise in III-IV materials across the following fields:molecular beam epitaxy, metal organic vapor phase epitaxy and hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The company manufactures wafers ofgallium arsenide (GaAs) andgallium nitride (GaN) for developing and manufacturing compound semiconductor systems.
These materials are used inWi-Fi and high-frequency electronic devices (mobile telecommunications, infrastructure networks, satellite communications, fiber optic networks and radar detection), as well as in energy management and optoelectronic systems, such as LEDs.
Soitec has carried out three capital increases:
CAC Next 20 companies of France(as of 1 October 2023[update]) | |
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