news digest ♦ Power Electronics
devices sold into PV inverters to $200 million by 2020, Yole predicts.
Even though PV inverters are currently better established, EV/HEV inverter producers could still be more advanced in making full use of SiC. “Efficiency drives adoption, but putting SiC in any system could also make it smaller and lighter,” Roussel stressed. “For EV/ HEV, that is just fantastic.”
SiC Schottky diodes have been around for more than 10 years, with SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field- effect transistors (MOSFET), junction-gate field-effect transistors (JFET) and bipolar junction transistors (BJT) appearing in recent years. In contrast, GaN power semiconductors are only just appearing in the market.
GaN is a wide bandgap material that offers similar performance benefits to SiC but has greater cost- reduction potential. This price/performance advantage is possible because GaN power devices can be grown on silicon substrates that are larger and lower in cost compared to SiC.
GaN and SiC power device market set to boom by 18 times
From 2012 to 2022 silicon carbide and gallium nitride power revenues are set to soar from $143 million to $2.8 billion
The emerging market for SiC and GaN power semiconductors is forecast to grow a remarkable factor of 18 during the next 10 years.
This will be energised by the demand from power supplies, photovoltaic (PV) inverters and industrial motor drives.
Worldwide revenue from sales of SiC and GaN power semiconductors is projected to rise to $2.8 billion in 2022, up from just $143 million in 2012. This is according to a new report entitled “The World Market for SiC & GaN Power Semiconductors - 2013 Edition” from IMS Research, now part of IHS. Market revenue is expected to rise by the double digits annually for the next decade, as presented in the figure below.
“The key factor determining market growth will be how quickly GaN-on-silicon devices can achieve price parity and equivalent performance as silicon MOSFETs, insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) or rectifiers,” says Richard Eden, senior market analyst for power semiconductor discretes and modules at IHS. “IHS expects this will be achieved in 2019, driving the GaN power market to pass the $1 billion mark in 2022.”
SiC Schottky diode revenue exceeded $100 million in 2012, making it the best-selling SiC or GaN device currently. But even though SiC Schottky diode revenue is forecast to grow until 2015, it will decline when lower- priced 600V GaN diodes become available. Still revenue will recover to approach $200 million by 2022, with sales concentrated at voltage ratings of 1200V and above.
By then, SiC MOSFETs are forecast to generate revenue approaching $400 million, overtaking Schottky diodes to become the best-selling SiC discrete power device type.
Meanwhile, SiC JFETs and SiC BJTs are each forecast to generate less than half of SiC MOSFET revenues at that time, despite their likelihood of achieving good reliability, price and performance. End users now strongly prefer SiC MOSFETs, so vendors of SiC JFETs and BJTs have a major task ahead in educating their potential customers on the benefits of these technologies.
While IHS predicts strong growth for the SiC and GaN power semiconductor market in the years ahead, the forecast has been significantly reduced compared to the outlook from one year ago.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net June2013
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