IGBT market to see 7.5% CAGR through 2020-26

Market research from Yole Developpement suggests that the IGBT market is set to grow at 7.5% CAGR from 2020-26 to reach $8.4 billion by 2026.

According to the report, the IGBT modules segment is set to represent 81% of the total market in 2026 boosted by EV/HEVs adoption.

More than 80% of the market will be focused on the 600V-1,200V nominal voltage ranges by 2026. At the system level, new IGBT voltage levels are covering new voltage ranges: e.g. the EV inverter move from 400V to 800V, and the PV inverter move to 1,500V.

The market is also set for a considerable number of technical innovations with a new generation of IGBT dies, higher efficiency and lower cost, according to Yole.

Packaging is looking for high reliability, lower cost and lower inductance electrical interconnections and IGBT is taking advantage of SiC packaging developments. At the wafer level, analysts see a move to 300mm IGBT wafer manufacturing and a shift to MCZ silicon material.

While IGBT manufacturers can be found globally, Yole expects to see important growth of Chinese IGBT manufacturers, both foundries and IDMs.

All major players are investing into IGBT manufacturing capacity increases. The ranking of main IGBT suppliers remains almost unchanged. The top 3 are: Infineon, Mitsubishi and ON Semi.

In addition to EV/HEVs, discrete IGBTs and IGBT power modules can be found in a hosyt of different applications such as industrial motor drives, wind turbines, photovoltaic installations, trains, UPS , EV charging infrastructure and home appliances.

In 2020, the largest IGBT market segments were industrial applications and home appliances but they were closely followed by EV/HEVs, which represented a market of $509 million in 2020, but which is forecasted to grow by 23% CAGR between 2020 and 2026 driven by the transition from ICE vehicles to EV/HEVs, which is being strongly driven by governments’ targets for CO2 emissions reductions. As a consequence, the EV/HEV market 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,” said Yole’s Abdoulaye Ly, “although charging infrastructure is still a small market for IGBTs, it is expected to increase by more than 300% in the coming five years.”

The largest IGBT manufacturers including Infineon, Littelfuse andvFuji Electric offer both discrete IGBTs and IGBT power modules.