SiC market, a multi-billion-dollar prospect
SiC market anticipating high growth, with a new wave of capacity expansion and supply chain integration, says Yole
In a new report Power SiC 2022, Yole Développement forecasts that the SiC device market will grow beyond $6 billion by 2027 from a $1 billion business in 2021.
It's a market strongly driven by automotive applications, especially in the EV main inverter, according to Yole. There were multiple newly released EVs and announcements in 2020 and 2021, following Tesla’s adoption of SiC. "Moreover, Tesla’s record shipments helped SiC devices to reach the order of $1 billion in 2021. To fulfill the demand for a long driving range, an 800V EV is the solution to empower fast DC charging. This is where the 1200V SiC devices play crucial roles,” says Poshun Chiu, technology and market analyst specialising in Compound Semiconductor & Emerging Substrates at Yole
As of 2022, BYD’s Han-EV and Hyundai’s Ioniq-5 have enjoyed good sales by offering fast charging. More OEMs - such as Nio, XPeng, etc. - plan to bring SiC EVs to the market in 2022.
In addition to automotive applications,Yole says that industrial and energy applications have higher than 20 percent growth rate in the forecast period. High-power charging infrastructure with SiC modules is one application, and the growing installation of photovoltaics.
Among the top SiC device players, STMicroelectronics and Wolfspeed grew their SiC revenue with a YoY higher than 50 percent in 2021, aligning with the 57 percent growth in the global SiC device market. Infineon Technologies delivered a 126 percent growth by entering the main inverter business. Onsemi also entered the game with strong growth in 2021.
As these companies grow SiC to billion-dollar businesses, competition in the coming years can also be identified in supply chain integration. M&As and partnerships in SiC are reshaping the SiC ecosystem.
The SiC module is the next level for players to compete in, and Yole has identified new products being released for automotive, industrial, and energy applications.
On April 28, 2022, Peter Friedrich, VP SiC at Infineon Technologies, with Poshun Chiu, technology and market analyst specialising in Compound Semiconductor & Emerging Substrates at Yole, and Amine Allouche, technology and cost analyst at System Plus Consulting, will answer questions in a Yole webcast called 'SiC evolution: Cars drive a multi-billion dollar business'.
