Market and Technology Trends

Power SiC: Materials, Devices and Applications 2020

By Yole Intelligence — Nov 2020

Despite the COVID outbreak, SiC-based design wins have multiplied for electric vehicle applications and will drive the SiC market beyond $2.5B by 2025.

What's new:

Covid-19 impact analysis
Update of market size by device type: discrete diodes, diodes in hybrid modules, discrete transistors and full SiC modules
Update of market size for the diode and transistor bare die market
Update of voltage analyses of SiC power devices: 650V, 1200V, 1700V and over 1700V
Update SiC wafer and SiC epiwafer market
Update of player status with a focus in China
Discussion of recent investments, M&A events, the competitive advantages of key players and the market dynamics

SiC PENETRATION IS BOOMING IN EV/HEV MAIN INVERTERS

Following Tesla’s adoption of SiC in its main inverter in 2018-2019, announcements from different carmakers for SiC solution design wins have recently multiplied. In 2020, BYD and Lucid Air have also adopted SiC-based main inverter solutions for their premium models. Other carmakers, such as Audi, Volkswagen, and Hyundai, are expected to adopt SiC in their next-generation models. Moreover, 800V battery vehicles represent a significant market opportunity for SiC owing to its interesting performance/cost ratio compared to silicon IGBTs.

The main inverter market is driving the overall SiC-based electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEV) market and is expected to remain the main market with the highest potential for the overall power SiC market. The industry disagrees on how the market will grow. Forecasts range from the conservative, at several hundred million dollars, to optimistic, such as the $3 billion estimate from STMicroelectronics. But they all agree that the SiC market is poised for healthy growth driven by the automotive segment.

Tough supply chain disruptions and shutdowns on the automotive OEM side due to the Covid-19 outbreak have negatively impacted the electric and hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) market in H1-2020. However, SiC penetration in the main inverter is expected to remain positive, with a bright outlook for the 2019-2025 period. Yole Développement (Yole) sees a prospering SiC power device market, with EV/HEV its killer application. In fact, the automotive market is undoubtedly the foremost driver, and as such will hold more than 60% of total device market share in 2025.

Yole’s SiC report will answer numerous questions facing this industry. How will the EV market evolve? Are automotive Tier 1 and carmaker companies keeping their adoption timeline? Which automotive OEMs are targeting SiC inverters in their design wins? What impact does Yole expect for the overall SiC market?

DRIVEN BY EV RELATED APPLICATIONS, POWER SiC WILL GROW STRONGLY IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

Despite the Covid-19 outbreak, the SiC-based EV/HEV market hasn’t slowed down. Numerous carmakers continue qualifying SiC discrete devices or modules in main inverters, on-board chargers (OBC) and DC/DC converters for their next generation models. In this context, the SiC automotive market is expected to grow to exceed $1.5B in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38%.

Along with EV applications, SiC is of great interest to the charging infrastructure market, which is growing significantly. Indeed, high power chargers can benefit from SiC’s higher efficiency and higher frequency by offering more compact solutions than silicon IGBTs. The market size is expected to reach $225M in 2025 with a CAGR2019-2025 of around 90%.

Besides automotive, applications such as photovoltaics (PV), rail and motor drives will also show double-digit CAGR in the 2019-2025 period. There will be a trend going from hybrid SiC modules to full SiC modules in high power applications. Indeed, SiC-based full modules also require suitable module packaging in order to fully benefit from SiC’s added value. Innovative module packaging solutions open new business opportunities for SiC in the high voltage power electronics domain.

This report gives an overview of SiC power device markets, including, EV/HEV, charging infrastructure, PV, power supply, rail, motor drives and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and wind, with our analysis and understanding of SiC adoption. It also provides an overview of innovative module technology trends for automotive and high voltage applications.

MORE THAN $4 BILLION INVESTED IN THE POWER SiC INDUSTRY

In 2018, the increase of wafer demand as well as the transition from 4” to 6” resulted in wafer shortages. Consequently, securing wafer supply has become the priority for device manufacturers. Facing growing demand, wafer suppliers such as Cree, II-VI, SiCrystal (ROHM company), Tankeblue, SiCC and many others have invested heavily to expand their capacity. Numerous device manufactures, such as STMicroelectronics, Infineon, ON Semiconductor, have signed several long-term wafer supply agreements with Cree, SiCrystal and GTAT. In parallel, Korean SKSiltron acquired Dupont’s SiC wafer business and STMicroelectronics completed the acquisition of Norstel.

Following US-China trade tensions, Chinese players accelerated their plan to create a domestic supply chain. More than $2 billion were invested by Sanan, Tankeblue, SICC and other Chinese suppliers covering wafer and epiwafer fabs and packaging. In 2020, substrate supplier II-VI made an important step toward vertical integration in the SiC module business. By acquiring Ascatron and Innovion and licensing GE’s SiC module technology, II-VI has internalized the epi and device manufacturing steps in order to secure new business in the growing module market.

The SiC market is very dynamic, with lots of investments as well as partnerships to accelerate the time to market. Regarding the module business, in the 2019-2020 period, Cree partnered with StarPower, ABB, ZF and Delphi for SiC-based power train systems for electric cars and e-buses. ROHM teamed up with Vitesco and Leadrive Technologies to work on SiC powertrain solutions. Automotive Tier 1 player Bosch is also internally developing SiC modules.

The analysts invite you to read their analysis about the wafer supply situation, as well as forecasts for the wafer, epiwafer, device and module markets. The report also includes an extensive overview on the Chinese SiC ecosystem build out.

Key features of the report:

Yole Développement’s deep understanding of SiC penetration in different applications including xEV, xEV charging infrastructure, PFC/power supply, PV, UPS, motor drives, wind and rail
State-of-the-art SiC-based devices, modules, and power stacks, including product charts for each
Description of the SiC power industrial landscape from materials to systems, and discussion of SiC power market dynamics
SiC power device market value projections to 2025, including bare die market with transistor/ diode split, device market split by application and device market with discrete/ module split
SiC power device voltage analysis
Market value and volume projections for the SiC wafer and epiwafer market through to 2025
SiC power industry roadmap

Objectives of the report:

Provide a clear understanding of the SiC power industry, covering markets from wafers to discretes and modules, with valuations in units and $M
Analyze the market drivers and bottlenecks of the SiC power industry by studying SiC adoption by different end applications and supply chains
Understand the status of SiC power device technology
Describe the industry landscape and market dynamics

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