Strategy Analytics released results from its annual industry surveys rating GaAs bulk and epitaxial wafer suppliers. “GaAs Bulk and Epitaxial Wafer Vendor Ratings and Customer Satisfaction 2007” concludes that no one GaAs epitaxial substrate supplier was rated highly enough to be able to satisfy both the technical and commercial requirements of end users. On the GaAs bulk substrate front, end users continued to express high levels of satisfaction with three major vendors for both technical and commercial vendors.

VPEC, Kopin and IQE lead GaAs epitaxial wafer customer satisfaction on price, lead time, delivery and responsiveness to complaints. Meanwhile, Hitachi Cable had the highest satisfaction rating for technical parameters especially those related to wafer and lot uniformity.

Commenting on bulk wafer suppliers, Asif Anwar, director of Strategy Analytics’ GaAs service, observed, “AXT has steadily increased its customer satisfaction ratings over the past few years. In 2007, bulk substrate users rated AXT on a par with Hitachi Cable and FCM who have traditionally led the Strategy Analytics customer satisfaction ratings.”

Other key findings from “GaAs Bulk and Epitaxial Wafer Vendor Ratings and Customer Satisfaction 2007” include:
• IQE and Kopin are competing strongly for customer satisfaction on commercial parameters such as lead time, delivery and response to complaints.
• AXT’s bulk substrates were rated alongside FCM for technical parameters, beating both Japanese majors, Hitachi Cable and SEI (Sumitomo Electric Industries).
• Despite high profile relationships with leading GaAs device and GaAs epitaxial wafer producers, SEI continues to be rated poorly by other customers.
• Hitachi Cable is notable for being rated highly for both its GaAs bulk and epitaxial substrates.