Compound semiconductors are semiconductor materials composed of two or more elements. Currently, the most commonly used materials are GaAs, GaN and SiC, etc. As the main representatives of the second and third generation semiconductors, they play an irreplaceable role in the industries of information communication, photoelectric application and new energy vehicles due to their unique advantages in high power and high frequency.

Over the years, countries around the world have always attached great importance to compound semiconductor and introduced relevant policies to support the development of their own industries. In 2017, the United States, Germany, the European Union, Japan and other countries and organizations launched at least 12 research and development programs, with a total investment of $600 million. With the strong support of governments around the world, the manufacturing technology of compound semiconductor devices has made rapid progress since the first GaAs transistor was produced in 1965, which provides a solid foundation for the application of compound semiconductor. At present, with the gradual maturity of ALD(atomic deposition) technology, the quality and reliability of compound semiconductor HMET structure and MOSFET structure have been greatly improved, further increasing the market share of compound semiconductor materials in the field of high frequency and high voltage applications. In the future, with the further improvement of the manufacturing process of compound semiconductor, it will become a long-term development trend of compound semiconductor to replace traditional silicon materials in logic application and thus equivalent continuation of Moore's law.

As the main application market of compound semiconductors, the RF device market has experienced a slow development from 2015 to 2016. Up to now, with the upgrading of 5G base stations and the huge demand for miniaturization of equipment, the global RF power device market will grow at a rapid compound annual growth rate of 9.8% from 2016 to 2022. The market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2016 to $2.5 billion in 2022. In addition, with the increasing requirements of device performance in the communication industry, the advantages of GaN, GaAs and other compound semiconductor devices are gradually emerging, and the traditional silicon process devices are gradually replaced. It is expected that compound semiconductor will occupy more than 80% of the market share of RF devices by 2025.