2 June 2015

Innovations to sustain silicon's 87% share of power electronics market versus wide-bandgap materials

Driven by technology innovations, silicon-based power electronics will continue their domination of the fastest-growing and largest markets, allowing silicon to maintain an 87% market share, worth $20bn by 2024, and constraining wide-bandgap semiconductor (WBG) materials to a smaller market share, according to Lux Research.

Innovations in circuit design, control methods and module packaging will help silicon to hold off the adoption of WBG materials in many applications, particularly in the near-term, on account of silicon's high availability and volumes, reckons the market analyst firm.

"Circuit design innovation will have its biggest impact on space and efficiency improvements in IT and consumer electronics, while control method innovation impacts size reduction across all applications," says Lux Research associate Tiffany Huang, the lead author of the report 'Sorting Through the Maze of Silicon Innovations in Power Electronics'. "Innovations in module packing can not only reduce size, but increase the efficiency to be on par with current WBG innovations in transportation markets," she adds.

Lux Research analysts reviewed the ongoing innovations in silicon technology and ranked the leading companies on the Lux Innovation Grid on the basis of their technical and business execution scores. Their findings include the following:  

• TI, Maxim, Qualcomm dominate circuit design. On the strength of their partnerships and customers in multiple market segments, Texas Instruments, Maxim, Power Integrations and Qualcomm are the 'Dominant' circuit design companies on the Lux Innovation Grid. Among start-ups, Ineda, Arctic Sand, Ambiq Micro, Brusa and Alpitronic are ranked 'High-potential'.

• ABB, Dialog, Omron top in control methods. With efficient products and partnerships, ABB, Dialog and Omron are the 'Dominant' companies pursuing control methods innovation. Start-ups have attained varied degree of success, with Varentec, FINsix, Gridco and Cirasys all rated 'High-potential'.

• Bosch, Schneider rule module packaging. In module packaging, the 'Dominant' companies are Bosch and Schneider Electric, on account of their strengths in automotive and industrial markets, respectively. AT&S pursues novel energy-efficient packaging methods but has found little adoption in the market, while AgileSwitch's success with its digital gate driver has been limited to the USA.

The report 'Sorting Through the Maze of Silicon Innovations in Power Electronics' is part of the Lux Research Energy Electronics Intelligence service.

Tags: GaN SiC Power electronics

Visit: https://portal.luxresearchinc.com/research/report_excerpt/19108