Power trends for transistors, diodes

Two market research companies have recently looked at the transistor and diode markets and examined what is pushing the market forward — and what we can expect in the near future. For example, we all know that there is strong interest in green energy. It is this interest that is pushing growth in power electronics for electricity conversion, especially inverters, according to “Inverter technology trends and market expectations” from Yole Developpment. The overall shipments of inverters for every power range should reach almost 28 million units. As a consequence, the semiconductor power modules market — mostly driven by insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules — will reach $1.64 billion in 2012 thanks to EV/HEV applications. This report also shows that SiC- and GaN-based switches are not ready yet to penetrate the market in high volume. Indeed, technology still needs improvements and cost reduction. Yole says that mass adoption will not come before 2015 and my interview with Chief Engineer Robert White of Embedded Power Labs (http://bcove.me/g39i42u1) indicates that many in-the-trenches-designers are in agreement. In addition, compound semiconductors will still compete with silicon based technologies such as fast IGBTs and Super Junction MOSFETs, specially driven by new inverter architectures. For more information, contact Brice Le Gouic,
or www.yole.fr.

The second market report, “The world power semiconductor discretes and modules report — 2012 edition” ( http://imsresearch.com/report/The_World_Market_for_Power_Semiconductor_Discretes_Modules_2012&cat_id=176&type=LatestResearch) from IMS Research, states that the global discrete power semiconductor market will grow by 3.7% in 2012. That means the discrete market will reach $13.4B. The company says that IGBTs are again expected to be the fastest growing product type. The market growth is driven by industrial motor drives and power modules, and by automotive applications for hybrid electric vehicles. Sales for inverterized home appliances produced in China have slowed following removal of the government incentives, but are still projected to deliver double-digit growth in 2012. The overall discrete IGBT market is forecast to grow by 19% in 2012. The prospects for the discrete power semiconductor market overall are less optimistic. Revenues from power MOSFETs, thyristors, and GTOs, IGCTs, and GCTs are expected to fall for the second year in a row, but the MOSFET and rectifier market will still have 74% of the total power discrete market. Several factors have conincided to cause the sector to decline this year including the slowing global economy, the floods in Thailand that restricted notebook production, the rising tablet sales (they contain fewer MOSFETs than PCs), and even the introduction of the Ivy Bridge micro-architecture from Intel that is said to consume up to 50% less power than previous models, which suggests that Ivy Bridge motherboards may use up to 50% fewer power MOSFETs. For more information, contact Richard Eden,
, +44 (0) 1933 402 255, or www.ihs.com.