Despite inventory adjustments in the global semiconductor industry, companies are adjusting or expanding their production to include silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors, a kind of compound semiconductor that exhibits high potential in power components and EVs.
While traditional silicon-based semiconductors like insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) will remain, SiC semiconductors will be crucial to power components of EVs and charging piles, according to Taiwanese diode manufacturers. Both markets are hard to penetrate, due to strong competitors like Infineon Technologies. Nevertheless, as companies like Panjit and Diodes are already preparing for wide band gap components, there's no debate that SiC shines a clear path forward for players in the field.
The trend is obvious to other global companies as well. The wide band gap SiC is among the three components that businesses related to Avnet expect EVs to require more and more of. Avnet, which constantly holds 4-5% on its operating margins, is actively adjusting its production to include SiC semiconductors so that it can meet its clients' needs. The compound is also considered by other major integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) around the world to be essential to EV and green technologies, and these include Infineon, Onsemi, Rohm, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Wolfspeed.
To understand the trend, one needn't look further than Infineon's announcement of its plan to expand the company's wafer fab in Malaysia. The IDM giant will have a factory with the largest 8-inch SiC wafer production capacity. Other manufacturers of power components, diodes, and MOSFET ICs are trailing closely despite the fact that currently only IDMs are able to produce compound semiconductors at larger scales or for higher-end uses. It will not be hard for Infineon, with EUR 5 billion (US$5.46 billion) in design-wins and about EUR 1 billion in prepayments under its belt, to capture 30% of the SiC market by 2030.
To rise to the inner circle of the SiC market, it is imperative for an IC distributor to prevail in speed, global presence, and professional knowledge in EV and charging systems, says a source in the industry.
Article translated by Julie Chang
