Indium Phosphide: Another Warning Issued

IQE CEO Jutta Meier stated that export controls are making access to indium phosphide substrates a major risk for the semiconductor industry. Indium phosphide is the only direct bandgap semiconductor capable of both guiding and generating light, making it a core material for optical communication lasers. AI data centers have ignited demand, and the upgrade of optical modules to 1.6T doubles the InP usage per module. However, the supply chain is highly concentrated and capacity expansion is difficult, so the supply shortage could be more severe than that of memory chips.