Producer
Coherent Corp.
Major SiC substrate manufacturer (13.9% market share) formed from the merger of II-VI and Coherent (2022). Received $500M investments from both Denso and Mitsubishi Electric (2021) for SiC capacity expansion in Easton, PA and Kista, Sweden. Also produces compound semiconductors for defense, telecom, and industrial lasers. Long-term SiC supply agreements with STMicroelectronics.
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1 input Coherent Corp. supplies
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Networking / Telecom Optical Transceivers
35%Lasers (Industrial, Medical, Scientific)
28%SiC Substrates (World #2)
18%Compound Semiconductors + Optical Materials
19%
Intelligence
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Did you know2023
Coherent Corp's CdTe (cadmium telluride) infrared detector technology creates an unexpected link between thin-film solar cells and military thermal imaging. Cadmium telluride grown as a II-VI compound at specific crystalline purity forms a narrow-bandgap semiconductor that detects mid-wave and long-wave infrared (3-15 micron) — making it the dominant material for military FLIR (forward-looking infrared) cameras on F-35, Apache helicopters, and Predator drones. The exact same material (CdTe) is the absorber layer in First Solar thin-film photovoltaic panels. The compound semiconductor material enabling solar energy production and the compound semiconductor material enabling military targeting systems are chemically identical — manufactured from the same raw cadmium and tellurium inputs. A tellurium supply shortage simultaneously constrains green energy deployment and military thermal sensor production.
Coherent Corp ↗Origin2023
II-VI Incorporated was founded in 1971 by Carl Johnson at Carnegie-Mellon University to make II-VI compound semiconductor optical materials — primarily zinc selenide (ZnSe) and zinc sulfide (ZnS) windows and lenses for industrial CO2 laser cutting machines. The company's name literally references the periodic table column II and column VI elements (zinc, cadmium + sulfur, selenium, telluride). From these industrial laser optics, II-VI expanded backward into GaAs wafers, SiC substrates, InP chips, then forward into optical transceivers (Finisar acquisition 2019) and then merged with Coherent Corporation (laser systems, founded Palo Alto 1966) in 2022 to create a vertically integrated photonics company. The new Coherent Corp makes the raw crystal, grows the wafer, fabricates the chip, assembles the transceiver module, and installs the laser system — from periodic table elements to deployed fiber network equipment. A company named for two chemical periodic table columns now controls a significant fraction of the optical backbone of the global internet.
Coherent Corp ↗Capacity2021
Coherent Corp. (formerly II-VI) received $500M investments each from Denso (Toyota's supplier) and Mitsubishi Electric in 2021 — totaling $1B — specifically to expand SiC substrate capacity as an alternative to Wolfspeed. This represents a rare instance of Japanese automotive OEM suppliers directly funding a US critical mineral supply chain to reduce dependence on a single dominant US producer (Wolfspeed) and preempt Chinese market entry.
Coherent Corp. (formerly II-VI) ↗