IHS Inc., Englewood, Colo., reports that the emerging market for silicon carbide and gallium nitride power semiconductors is forecast to pass the $1 billion mark in five years, energized by demand from hybrid and electric vehicles, power supplies, and photovoltaic inverters. Worldwide revenue from sales of SiC and GaN power semiconductors is projected to rise to $3.7 billion in 2025, up from just $210 million in 2015. Market revenue is also expected to rise with double digit growth annually for the next decade.
SiC Schottky diodes have been on the market for more than ten years, with SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors, junction-gate field-effect transistors, and bipolar junction transistors appearing in recent years.
SiC MOSFETs are proving very popular among manufacturers, with several companies already offering them, and more expected in the coming year. The introduction of 900-volt SiC MOSFETs, priced to compete with silicon SuperJunction MOSFETs, as well as increased competition among suppliers, forced average prices to fall in 2015.
“Declining prices will spur faster adoption of the technology,” said Richard Eden, senior market analyst for power semiconductor discretes and modules at IHS Technology. “In contrast, GaN power transistors and GaN modules have only just recently appeared in the market. GaN is a wide bandgap material offering similar performance benefits to SiC, but with greater cost-reduction potential. This price and performance advantage is possible because GaN power devices can be grown on silicon substrates that are larger and less expensive than SiC. Although GaN transistors are now entering the market, the development of GaN Schottky diodes has virtually stopped.”
By 2020, GaN-on-silicon devices are expected to achieve price parity with — and the same superior performance as — silicon MOSFETs and insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). When this benchmark is reached, the GaN power market is expected to surpass $600 million in 2025. In contrast, the more established SiC power market — mainly consisting of SiC power modules — will hit $3 billion in the same time period.
