Sumitomo Chemical starts InP wafer production for AI data centers

Sumitomo Chemical has established a mass production system for 4-inch indium phosphide, or InP, epitaxial wafers at its Ibaraki Works in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, and has begun sales. The company says it is one of the few epi houses in Japan able to stably mass-produce the compound semiconductor material, which supports photonic-electronic convergence technologies for next-generation digital infrastructure.

Demand is being driven by generative AI, IoT, cloud services and upgraded communications networks, all of which require faster processing of larger data volumes. AI data centers face rising power consumption and processing-load challenges, and InP epitaxial wafers are used in optical semiconductor devices that convert electrical signals to optical signals and back. Photonic-electronic convergence is designed to enable high-speed, large-capacity processing and communications while reducing power consumption by integrating electrical and optical circuits.

Sumitomo Chemical is applying composition control, thin-film stacking and crystal growth process control technologies developed through more than 25 years of mass-producing gallium arsenide and gallium nitride epitaxial wafers. The company aims to generate sales of around 10 billion JPY from its InP epitaxial wafer lineup by the mid-2030s and plans to expand across wireless communications, power semiconductors and data centers.