Clean Energy Drives GaN/SiC Semiconductors

7 July, 2020

Following demand from electric vehicles, power supplies, and photovoltaic inverters, the Global sales of SiC and GaN power semiconductors is forecast to pass $1 billion in 2021

Worldwide revenue from sales of silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors is projected to rise to $854 million by the end of 2020, up from just $571 million in 2018, according to Omdia’s Power Semiconductors Report. Market revenue is expected to increase at a double-digit annual rate, passing $5 billion by 2029.

These long-term market projection totals are about $1 billion lower than those in last year’s edition of this report. This is because demand for almost all applications has slowed since 2018. Moreover, device average prices fell in 2019. The forecast is based on data from from 2019, and do not take account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SiC MOSFETs are proving very popular among manufacturers, with several companies already offering them. Several factors caused average pricing to fall in 2019, including the introduction of 650, 700 and 900 volt (V) SiC MOSFETs priced to compete with silicon superjunction MOSFETs, as well as increasing competition among suppliers.

“Declining prices will eventually spur faster adoption of SiC MOSFET technology,” said Richard Eden, senior principal analyst for power semiconductors at Omdia. “In contrast, GaN power transistors and GaN system ICs have only appeared on the market quite recently. GaN is a wide-bandgap material offering similar performance benefits as SiC, but with a higher cost-reduction potential.

“These price and performance advantages are possible because GaN power devices can be grown on either silicon or sapphire substrates, which are less expensive than SiC. Although GaN transistors are now available, sales of GaN system integrated circuits (ICs), from companies such as Power Integrations, Texas Instruments and Navitas Semiconductor are forecast to rise at a faster rate.”

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Posted in tags: GaN