Total market for high power devices and modules was $390 million in 2009, it’s expected to ramp up to more than $570 million by 2015.

March 8, 2010 - Yole Développement’s new study dedicated to the high voltage power electronics industry, High Voltage Power Electronics Market & Technology Trends, uses a deep understanding of application markets to provide a detailed analysis on the technical developments provided by the leading companies.

The company details market data of macro market (wind turbine installed base, shipments of vessels and trains, and number of existing power installations for electricity T&D) and market metrics of related power devices and modules (IGBTs, thyristors and diodes).

This report also includes market estimation of silicon wafers and SiC substrates penetration.

Market Trends

The power electronics market is booming at all voltage ranges. More importantly, power devices for application markets >1.7 kV like wind power converters, electricity transportation and distribution (T&D), rail traction and ship & vessel propulsion correspond to high added‐value businesses.

“It is sure that their total 2010 expected market size of $405 million (including power devices and power modules) is small compared to lower voltage markets, but they remain very dynamic and offer the potential of high margins,” explains Brice Le Gouic, Market & Technology Analyst at Yole Développement.

These market developments are primarily driven by energy saving considerations and green technology developments. They are actively supported – e.g. electricity T&D – by several governments and leading companies are working to improve their technology.

As such, silicon IGBTs, thyristors (GTOs and IGCTs), diodes and future SiC devices will get access to more and more technological improvements like transition to 8’’ wafer platforms and use of silicon carbide (SiC) materials among others.

However, the long time period of order contracts, the low volume production they imply and the issues to increase voltage to use SiC‐based components induce quite light competition between the well established players of those markets.

Market Metrics

Total market for high power devices and modules (including IGBTs, thyristors and diodes) was $390 million in 2009 and is expected to ramp up to more than $570 million by 2015.

Rail traction will contribute more than 65 percent of this value because of the high level of production it represents and the number of inverter units per locomotive.

Electricity T&D will benefit from the strongest CAGR between 2010 and 2015: 11.1%. Indeed, Yole Développement expects plenty of work to be realized for HDVC transportation, and ABB to provide an important contribution to HVDC light architecture by making IGBTs.

Wind turbine converters have not suffered so much from the 2009 crisis, and their growth is expected to be the second strongest, with 2010 – 2015 CAGR of more than 9 percent. 

Finally, ship and vessel markets have been impacted unevenly in 2009. Military vessels have kept on growing – relatively to the long time period of ship manufacturing – whereas passenger yachts acquired for private use have drastically decreased.

As a consequence, Yole Développement’s experts estimate the global IGBT module market for ships and vessels to resume in 2013 and reach $26 million by 2015.

Power Electronics, A Daily Challenge For Many Industries

Power electronics represent a daily challenge in several systems today (photovoltaic inverters, hybrid electric and electric vehicles, cameras, white goods …) from a market point of view, but also from a technology development aspect.

Plenty of companies are pushing R&D efforts hard in order to provide the most cost‐effective, efficient and reliable materials, devices and systems.

And some more “hidden” applications, like the over‐ 1.7 kV segment described in this report benefit from those efforts.

The 4 following segments have been investigated in Yole Développement’s report: wind turbine converters, electricity T&D, rail traction, ships and vessels.

About The Report

Companies listed in this report: ABB, Schneider Electric, Areva, Alstom, Mitsubishi Electric, Converteam, Fuji, Hitachi, Infineon, Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, NEG Micon, Northern Power Systems, PacWind, Raum Energy Inc., Samsung Heavy Industries, Scanwind, General Electric, Southwest Windpower, Toshiba, Ansaldo‐ Breda, Bombardier, Dynex Semiconductor, Talgo, Stadler, Semikron, Powerex, Vishay, Cableform, Polovodice, Vossloh, SEPSA, Ingeteam, Hyundai Rotem …

The report's author, Brice Le Gouic, works at Yole Développement on market and technology analysis in the fields of power electronics and related applicative markets. He was granted a Master of Science degree in semiconductor physics and microelectronics from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France.

For special offers and price, contact David Jourdan at jourdan@yole.fr or +33 472 83 01 90. For more information, visit www.yole.fr.