Soitec

Soitec is a France-based international industrial company specialized in generating and manufacturing high performance semiconductor materials. 
Soitec's semiconductor materials are used to manufacture chips which equip smartphones, 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 is silicon 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 for microchips in electronics.
History.
Soitec was founded in 1992 near Grenoble in France by two researchers from CEA Leti, an institute for micro- and nanotechnologies research created by the French Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA). The pair developed Smart Cut™ technology to industrialize Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafers, and built their first production unit in Bernin, in the Isère department of France.
By applying this technology to materials other than silicon and developing further processes, Soitec has built up expertise in the field of semiconductor materials for the electronics market.
Soitec's offering initially targeted the electronics market. At the end of the 2000s, Soitec launched into the solar 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 one thousand people throughout the world and currently has production units in France and in Singapore. The company also has R&D centers and commercial offices in France, the United States (Arizona and California), China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
Operations.
Historically, Soitec has marketed Silicon 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 for radio-frequency components, multimedia processors, and power electronics.
With the rapid growth of the Internet 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 of high-speed Internet.
In the solar energy market Soitec acquired Concentrix Solar, then manufactured and supplied Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems from 2009 to 2015. Research to create a new generation of four-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.
In the lighting industry, Soitec operates upstream and downstream of the LED value chain.
Upstream, the company uses its expertise in semiconductor materials to develop substrates made from gallium nitride (GaN), the base material used in LEDs. 
Downstream, Soitec is developing a range of industrial partnerships to commercialize new professional lighting solutions (urban, office and transport infrastructure lighting).
Technologies.
Soitec is developing numerous technologies for its different sectors of activity.
Smart Cut™.
Developed by CEA-Leti in collaboration with Soitec, this technology has been patented by researcher Michel Bruel. 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.
Smart Stacking™.
This 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.
Epitaxy.
Soitec has epitaxy expertise in III-IV materials across the following fields: molecular beam epitaxy, metal organic vapor phase epitaxy deposition and hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The company manufactures wafers of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) for developing and manufacturing compound semiconductor systems.
These materials are used in Wi-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.
Capital increases.
Soitec has carried out three capital increases: