IGBT Market and Technology Trends 2021

THE IGBT MARKET, STRONGLY DRIVEN BY EV/HEVS, WILL REACH $8.4 BILLION BY 2026

An Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is a key device in numerous power electronics applications. The IGBT market was worth $5.4B in 2020 and will grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.5% from 2020-2026.

Discrete IGBTs and IGBT power modules can be found in applications like electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEVs), industrial motor drives, wind turbines, photovoltaic installations, trains, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), EV charging infrastructure and home appliances. In 2020, the largest IGBT market segments were industrial applications and home appliances. They were closely followed by EV/HEVs, which represented a market of $509M in 2020 and which will grow with an impressive CAGR for 2020-2026 of 23%. This is due to the transition from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to EV/HEVs, which is being strongly driven by governments’ targets for CO2 emissions reductions. This transition is further accelerating due to President Biden’s action plans for the USA as well as the recent EU climate initiative in which all new cars registered in Europe from 2035 will be zero-emission. Therefore, as shown in this report, the EV/HEV segment share will more than double by 2026. Charging infrastructure is also impacted by government decisions as the deployment of chargers is crucial for the expansion of electric vehicle uptake. Although charging infrastructure is still a small market for IGBTs, it is expected to increase by more than 300% in the coming five years.

All the driving applications for the IGBT market are detailed in this report, with a focus on market and technology trends for each application.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN IS RESHAPING IN ANTICIPATION OF FUTURE IGBT DEMAND GROWTH

The main IGBT manufacturers are spread all over the world, with historical big players in Europe, USA and Japan. Many IGBT players are vertically integrated, especially in device manufacturing and packaging. The fast-growing demand for IGBTs is pushing mergers and acquisitions. The whole supply chain is being reshaped, with players trying to find the best possible position in the market.

Companies like Infineon, Fuji Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, onsemi and Toshiba have been in the IGBT business for many years already, with many products commercialized. However, it is important to watch the growth of Chinese IGBT manufacturers, which are catching up fast in development, production and in capacity.

As 200mm fab capacity for power devices is relatively full, manufacturing on 300mm wafers enables higher device production capacity to meet the needs of the growing IGBT market. It is not surprising that to increase production volumes over next 10 years all major players are investing in IGBT manufacturing capacity expansions, as the transition to 300mm wafers enables better cost structures to face growing competition with Chinese manufacturers. However, there are several Chinese players that are also expanding to 300mm by enlarging their own factories like HHGrace and CanSemi, or by acquisitions of foreign companies.

In this report, there is a full analysis of the IGBT supply chain, including major mergers and acquisitions.

IGBT DICE AND PACKAGING CONTINUE IMPROVING

The major worldwide companies have already developed several generations of IGBT devices and are at the cutting edge of IGBT technology such as field stop, gate trench and thin wafer. Their main work is to keep on optimizing the cell structure design and to get even thinner wafers for better performance. Very high voltage IGBTs above 6.5kV are being developed by CRRC and Fuji Electric as an alternative to thyristors in rail and grid applications. Newer IGBT structures like super junction IGBTs have been pursued by several companies such as ABB or Infineon for some years, but are still not in commercial production.

Although there is still untapped potential for IGBT die improvement, much development effort is focused on the IGBT device packaging for discrete devices and modules, in order to reduce cost and
to better respond to specific requirements of a given application.

High-power IGBT modules in particular increasingly use innovative packaging solutions, such as copper wire bonds, enhanced ceramic substrates and silver sintering die attach. The module thermal management design is increasingly optimized for a specific inverter design and power, especially in integrated systems. The trends towards greater integration of different systems in an electric vehicle lead also to integration trends along the supply chain and growing interest from automotive makers to increase integration in system and power module design and manufacturing.

The different technology developments at wafer, die and packaging levels are detailed in this report.

ABB, Alpha&Omega SC, Angstrem, Bosch, BYD, CanSemi, CAS-IGBT, CR Microelectronics, CREE, CRRC, CSR, Danfoss, DEC, Denso, Diodes Inc., Dynex, Eaton, Electrovipryamitel, Electrum, Energomodul, Fuji Electric, Global Technologies Group, Hitachi, HHGrace, Infineon, Ingeteam, Ixys, IR Peri, Keda Semiconductor, Kremny, LS Power Semitech, Littelfuse, Shenzhen Lytran Technology, Macmic, Magnachip, Microchip, Mitsubishi Electric, onsemi, Panasonic, Proton-Electrotex, Renesas, Rohm, Samil Power, Sanrex, Semikron, Semiland, Shanghai Electric, Siemens, SiEn, Silan Microelectronic, Sino-Microelectronics, Sinovel, SMA, STMicroelectronics, Starpower, Sungrow, Tesla Motors, Toshiba, Vishay, Vitesco Technologies, WeEn, Wolfspeed, Volkswagen, Yaskawa, Zavod Iskra, Zhonghuan Semiconductor, and others.

Key features of the report:

• 2020-2026 IGBT wafer market in Munits
• 2020-2026 IGBT market in Munits and $M, split by applications and by voltage range
• Global market trends and market trends by application
• IGBT supply chain overview and IGBT players ranking in 2020
• 12-inch wafer players and evolution
• Focus on IGBT companies and products in China
• IGBT die and IGBT device package evolution and key trends
• IGBT vs. SiC battle for EV

Objectives of the report:

• Analyze the main drivers for IGBT device applications
• Provide market metrics and forecasts for IGBT discrete devices and power modules
• Analyze the silicon IGBT competition: SiC MOSFET and GaN HEMT
• Provide an overview of the IGBT supply chain, with the main players and their market shares as well as their product portfolio, with an additional focus on the Chinese market
• Analyze how business models and supply chains are evolving
• Present main technological trends and ongoing development of IGBT devices on wafer, die and package levels

Scope of the report 5

Objectives of this report 6

About the authors 7

Companies cited in the report 8

What’s new compared to our last edition in 2017 9

What we got right, what we missed 10

Who should be interested in this report? 11

Three-page summary 13

Executive summary 17

Definitions 46

Methodology and definitions 56

• Market metrics and forecasts
• IGBT wafer market in MUnits
• IGBT market metrics and forecasts
• Discrete/modules/IPM
• Split by application
• Split by voltage range

Application description and market trends by application 73

• Global market trends
• Market trends, split by application: EV/HEV, motor drives, railway, electric vehicle DC chargers, photovoltaics, wind turbines, stationary battery energy storage, UPS, home appliances, HVDC, welding
• Market trends – split by product

COVID-19 crisis impact on silicon IGBT market 133

IGBT supply chain and player analysis 137

• IGBT player business models
• Locations of main IGBT players
• Locations of main IGBT IDMs
• Benchmark of companies involved by voltage
• Where does the demand for new device voltage classes come from?
• IGBT players ranking in 2020
• Market shares for discrete IGBT manufacturers
• Market shares for IGBT power module manufacturers
• Who supplies whom – By application
• Announcements, M&A and partnerships
• 12-inch wafers
• Focus on IGBT companies in China
• Focus on IGBT industry in Russia

IGBT technology analysis 192

• IGBT history and positioning
• Wafer trends
• Architectures of Si IGBT
• Technology evolution analysis

IGBT power device packaging 228

• IGBT device packaging technology trends

Focus: IGBT-SiC battle for EV 269

Raw materials – A potential shortage 278

Outlook 285