GaN Power Semiconductor Market Growth
The emerging market for Gallium Nitride (GaN) power
semiconductors is forecast to grow from almost zero in 2011 to over $1 billion
in 2021, according to a report from IMS Research. The research firm analysed
all of the key end markets for the products found that power supplies, PV
inverters and industrial motor drives would be the three main drivers of
growth.
While Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices have been
around for some years, GaN power semiconductors have only just appeared in the
market. One of the key reasons for the promising outlook for GaN power devices
is because GaN is a wide bandgap material which offers similar performance
benefits to SiC but has greater cost reduction potential. "This is possible
because GaN power devices will be grown on a larger, lower-cost Silicon
substrate", stated Richard Eden, Senior Market Analyst and author of The World
Market for Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride Power Semiconductors. "The key
market driver is the speed at which GaN-on-Si devices can achieve price parity
with Silicon MOSFETs, IGBTs or rectifiers with equivalent performance."
The speed of GaN transistor developments has accelerated
in the last two years, possibly due to a realization that the market will be
potentially huge. The launch of International Rectifier's "GaNpowIR" and EPC's
"eGaN FET" devices started the low voltage market in 2010. The emergence of
Transphorm and its 600V GaN transistors in 2011 created considerable interest
in the prospects of GaN competing with high voltage MOSFETs and IGBTs. Six of
the world's top ten discrete power semiconductor suppliers are planning to
launch GaN power devices in the near future, and some may already be making
devices for in-house end equipment.
The first applications to adopt will be power supplies
where the total system cost savings outweigh the unit price penalty of the
device. These include PC & notebook adaptors, servers, etc., and domestic
appliances like room air-conditioners, where efficiency improvements are being
driven by Government initiatives or regulations. Once reliability and other
potential problems are resolved, PV microinverters, electric vehicle battery
charging and other new applications are likely to adopt GaN power devices in
the future.
However, the market report found that there are some
barriers to main-stream market acceptance of GaN power devices. The first is
availability, as few GaN transistors are available in mass production.
Competing manufacturers' products are non-standard and there are no
second-sources. Second, the technology lacks maturity so far. Overall device
performance and GaN material defect rates need improvement. A third issue is
design inertia; the need to educate customers about both the potential benefits
of GaN and how to use the devices.