Chemical Vapor Deposition Market Size and Trends

Global chemical vapor deposition market is estimated to be valued at USD 24.27 Bn in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 44.66 Bn by 2031, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.1% from 2024 to 2031.

Chemical Vapor Deposition Market Key Factors

To learn more about this report, request sample copy

Global chemical vapor deposition market is driven by growing demand for chemical vapor deposition equipment across various industries like electronics, machinery, and medical devices. Technological advancements are enabling higher process through put and uniform coatings at nano-scale levels. Key players such as Applied Materials, Inc., Lam Research Corporation and other are investing in Research and Development R&D to develop new deposition materials and reduce cost of ownership. The use of CVD for applications like solar panels and smart devices will boost the demand for chemical vapor deposition equipment. However, availability of alternative deposition techniques may hamper the market growth to some extent during the forecast years.

Increasing demand for advanced semiconductor devices

The ubiquitous presence of electronic devices in our lives has meant that the demand for more advanced and powerful semiconductor chips is ever increasing. In applications ranging from smartphones to artificial intelligence, there is a constant push for higher performance and lower power consumption from semiconductors. This is driving semiconductor manufactures to integrate more components on a single chip by using techniques like 3D stacking. However, shrinking transistor sizes and integrating diverse functionalities on a chip comes with its own set of challenges. Reliability, yield and precise deposition of various thin films have become critical to successfully manufacture advanced logic and memory chips.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is one of the primary deposition techniques used during the fabrication of semiconductors. It allows for the homogeneous deposition of uniform thin films on wafers through chemical reactions between vapor phase chemicals and the substrate surface. Advancements like plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD) have enabled the industry to deposit films with angstrom level thickness control at high speeds. As chips integrate more functions with each new generation, conventional deposition processes are finding it harder to meet requirements. This is spurring increased adoption of atomic layer deposition (ALD), a variant of CVD, which can precisely deposit monolayers of materials. Further, 3D architectures require conformal, seamless thin film coverage over high aspect ratio structures which traditional CVD struggles with. Next generation deposition technologies like spatial ALD try to overcome this by independently dosing precursor gases at different locations on the substrate.

The transition to ever smaller transistor features called for in Moore’s law also demands tighter control over film properties and composition at the atomic scale. Variations in materials parameters across the wafer can hamper device performance and yield. Advanced metrology integrated into deposition tools helps achieve greater uniformity and repeatability by giving real time feedback. The demand for more powerful logic and memory chips in applications driving our increasingly digital lives relies on continued advancement of the underlying semiconductor technology. This puts CVD and its variants at the center of enabling the next technology nodes, driving continued growth.

Growth in the Renewable Energy Sector, Particularly Solar Energy

There is a growing global momentum towards developing sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels and reduce carbon footprint. Among the various renewables, solar energy is leading this shift with rapidly falling costs and rising installations worldwide. For instance, according to data from the International Energy Agency in 2023, the renewable energy supply from sources such as solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and ocean energy increased by nearly 8% in 2022. This growth contributed to a rise in the share of renewable energy in the total global energy supply, which climbed by approximately 0.4 percentage points to reach 5.5%. This upward trend highlights the expanding role of renewable energy in the global energy landscape and underscores the ongoing transition toward more sustainable energy sources. However, increased harnessing of solar power also depends on advancement of the technologies and materials that go into making solar panels more efficient, durable and economical.

A key process in the manufacturing of crystalline silicon solar cells is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). It is used to deposit films of silicon, silicides and oxides on silicon wafers that form the core p-n junctions and passivation layers. As the solar industry aims for higher conversion efficiencies above 25%, precision in CVD film properties and interfaces becomes important. At the same time, industrial scale production requires deposition systems with high throughput and reproducibility. CVD manufacturers are addressing this through innovations like larger reactors, novel gas delivery systems and advanced process control. Meanwhile, solar cell designs are diversifying into new materials like perovskites as well as concentrating multiple p-n junctions in a single cell. CVD variants like ALD play a role here by enabling nano-scale depositions needed for these next generation designs.

In addition, photovoltaic modules also require anti-reflection coatings, conductors, encapsulants and glass substrates, some or all of which may employ CVD during their production. Furthermore, energy storage solutions, another critical area for transition to renewables, utilizes CVD deposited thin films in applications like batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. As solar, wind and other sustainable resources are being rapidly scaled up globally to play a bigger role in our energy mix, they will propel the continued growth and development of the chemical vapor deposition industry to support their manufacturing and long-term reliability needs.