Semiconductor electronic material consulting company TECHCET reported that in 2021, the total market value of ALD/CVD precursors increased by 21% to $1.39 billion, and is expected to grow by 12% in 2022. The precursor market in 2022 will exceed 1.56 billion US dollars, driven by an increase in the production of logic devices smaller than 7nm and an increase in the stacking layers of 3DNAND devices, resulting in strong overall industry growth. The transition from DRAM manufacturing to EUV lithography will also bring opportunities for increased precursor revenue.

Jonas Sundqvist, Senior Technical Analyst at TECHCET, said, "ALD and CVD are a segmented industry with rich materials and chemical composition, with significant development efforts, strong growth prospects, and a strong demand for new materials. New manufacturing solutions that meet both cost and performance will rely on ALD precursor materials

New materials and related process technologies are being driven by changes in device design. For advanced logic, transistors require new precursors to form high k gate dielectrics and metal gate materials, among others.

DRAM storage units continue to pursue higher k value capacitors. And advanced equipment requires improved interconnection wiring, insulators, and new or more media to support EUV and advanced ArF lithography.

Due to the continuous scaling of material sizes, especially new materials deposited by ALD, new challenges still exist. In the past 5 years, regional selective deposition has become a trend, and more and more research and development institutions are applying this method to future devices.