Market study says SiC & GaN devices to impact discrete power semiconductor market

One of the worst hit among the semiconductor industry during this recession are discrete power semiconductor makers. The key market driver in this domain is, power consumption. If the drop across the diode is reduced to negligible value, the overall efficiency of DC/DC, AC/DC converters will increase by some good percentage. The Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride based power switching devices offer that advantage.

Market researcher IMS research has come out with a market analysis report on this subject.

The release from IMS highlights below points

1. PV inverter manufacturers are investigating the option of using Silicon Carbide (SiC) diodes within low power inverter designs to increase overall system efficiency by nearly 0.5%.
2. Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems that they had set a new world record of over 99% efficiency for a PV inverter using SiC JFETs.
3. SiC power semiconductors offer the advantages of low switching and conduction losses, and higher temperature and frequency capability compared to Silicon devices.
4. Higher cost and device limitations at higher currents, however, remain the largest barriers to mass adoption.
5. Inverter systems using these devices can be run at higher frequencies, leading to cost savings in other areas of the inverter, such as the inductors. There are also additional advantages to running the system at higher frequencies including reduction of system noise.

IMS Research analyst, Josh Flood comments "The jury is still out on the implementation of SiC power transistor within PV inverters. Nevertheless, the strong likelihood of a SiC MOSFET being commercially available on the market within the next 4-6 months, and power modules integrating SiC JFETs, will add another dimension to SiC artillery against Si in this application."

IMS Research report title is "The Global Market for SiC & GaN Power Semiconductors - 2009".