SiC chips growth forecast at 37.67% CAGR

MarketResearch.com estimates that semiconductors made of Silicon Carbide (SiC) will grow at a CAGR of 37.67 from approximately $218 million in 2012 to $5.34 billion by 2022.

According to MarketResearch.com's report, SiC semiconductors and electronics have emerged as a prominent field with respect to technology due to its advantages over conventional silicon-based devices. SiC improves the efficiency of a semiconductor device by more than 20 percent and also facilitates production and usage of devices with much smaller form factor.

Also, SiC offers inherent radiation-resistance, high-temperature operating capacity, high voltage and power handling capacity, high power efficiency and flexibility to be used a substrate. Use of SiC in industrial, power, solar and wind power applications will also enable smaller heat sink, passive, and magnetic nature in system designs. SiC electronics are also expected to find applications in electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, rail transportation, power supply units, photovoltaic applications, converters and inverters.

Over the next ten years, SiC is expcted to become a part of semiconductor mass manufacturing, particularly in power, opto-semiconductors (LEDs, laser diodes and lighting) and high-temperature semiconductors (extreme temperature & rad-hard environment specific).

SiC benefits
SiC is seen to become the choice for most of the next generation power semiconductor devices and high-temperature semiconductor devices and is quickly replacing the existing silicon technology. The various properties of silicon carbide such as wider band gap, larger critical electric field, and higher thermal conductivity let the SiC devices operate at higher temperatures and higher voltages offering higher power density and higher current density than the pure Si devices. These properties allow the SiC discretes such as Schottky diodes, MOSFETs, and the other advanced transistors to operate at much higher voltage levels, which are difficult for the counterpart Si devices. The SiC devices also help in reducing the conduction and switching losses, thereby offering higher efficiency in electronic systems.

Over the past decade, research was carried out on a massive scale to develop SiC-based discretes (MOSFETs & various types in them, IGBTs, diodes & rectifiers, thyristors, and other FETs) and ICs that have advanced and sophisticated characteristics and offer better flexibility for use in several power applications. With such promising futures, the SiC semiconductor devices market is expected to grow robustly at a high CAGR of 37.67 percent from 2012 to 2022. The SiC market's competitive landscape had only a handful of players in the beginning of the previous decade, but it quickly emerged into a vast network with more than forty key players combining both—materials & devices. Currently, the overall SiC power semiconductors market accounts for less than 1 percent of the total power semiconductors market (currently at $34 billion including power discretes and power ICs), but over the next ten years, the entire base for power semiconductors & electronics players is expected to penetrate this new value chain, thereby rapidly increasing the percentage share. The total SiC semiconductor devices' market revenue (including power, opto & high-temperature) stands at approximately $218 million in 2012 and is expected to reach $5.34 billion by 2022.