The modern phase of the polysilicon market

Abstract

The current condition and outlooks of the world semiconductor and polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) markets have been analyzed. A long period of low PS prices which hindered the growth of investments into the industry has now changed for price recovery to an investment attractive level. Demand and offer balance for the period until 2024 and for the long term has been analyzed, and the main currently used PS processes have been reviewed. The current poly-Si market proficiency is expected to remain in the near and medium terms. However the “green turn” of the energy industry announced by all the governments, the development of local markets and the price recovery to an investment attractive level have promoted the development of new PS fab projects. Of special importance for Russia is the choice of Siemens trichlorosilane process parameters. A specific feature of the Russian market is the presence of several very important fields (solar energy, microelectronics, high-power electronics, photonics and fiber optics) which are small by international standards and equally face raw material shortage. It appears that Russia will greatly benefit from integral projects delivering solutions of multiple raw materials supply problems.