Silicon still rules in power electronics

Innovations in circuit design, control methods and module packaging will help silicon hold off adoption of WBG materials in many applications, particularly in the near-term on account of silicon’s high availability and volumes.

Lux ranked the leading companies on the basis of their technical and business execution and found:

TI, Maxim, Qualcomm dominate circuit design where high potential start-ups are Ineda, Arctic Sand, Ambiq Micro, Brusa and Alpitronic.

ABB, Dialog, Omron are dominant in control methods innovation with promising startups Varentec, FINsix, Gridco and Cirasys are all rated “High-potential.”

Bosch and Schneider rule module packagingcon account of their strengths in automotive and industrial markets. AT&S pursues novel energy-efficient packing methods but has found little adoption in the market, while AgileSwitch’s success with its digital gate driver has been limited to the U.S.

“Circuit design innovation will have its biggest impact on space and efficiency improvements in IT and consumer electronics, while control method innovation impacts size reduction across all applications,” said Tiffany Huang, Lux Research Associate and lead author of the report, titled ‘Sorting Through the Maze of Silicon Innovations in Power Electronics‘.

“Innovations in module packing can not only reduce size, but increase the efficiency to be on par with current WBG innovations in transportation markets.”.

The report is part of the Lux Research Energy Electronics Intelligence service.