The anticipated growth in power transistor sales in 2017 will be the first consecutive year-to-year increase in this semiconductor market segment in six years, pushing dollar volume beyond the current record of $13.5 billion set in 2011. In 2012 and 2013, the power transistor market experienced its first consecutive year-to-year sales decline in over three decades, falling 6% and 8% respectively, after a 12% increase in 2011 and a 44% surge in 2010 following the 2009 recession. The power transistor market rebounded in 2014 with a strong 14% increase, before declining 7% in 2015. In 2016, this discrete semiconductor market category began to stabilize and is expected to continue expanding at a moderate pace in the coming years. years, based on the forecast from the IC Insights OSD report (Figure 1).
Power transistors are the primary growth driver in the $23 billion discrete semiconductor market because they play a vital role in controlling and conditioning electricity for all types of electronics, including the growing number of battery-powered systems. Global efforts to reduce energy waste in power grids have significantly increased the importance of power transistors in consumer, commercial, and industrial systems. Renewable energy applications (e.g., wind and solar systems), as well as electric and hybrid vehicles, have also become important applications for power transistors over the past 15 years.
However, volatility in the first half of this decade resulted in a decline in the power transistor market over the past five years. Between 2011 and 2016, power transistor sales fell at a compound annual growth rate of -0.9% year-on-year, compared to the 25-year historical average of 6.4% (between 1991 and 2016). The OSD 2017 Report shows that global sales of power transistors will grow at a CAGR of 4.2% between 2016 and 2021, reaching $15.8 billion in 2021.
All power transistor technology categories are expected to register sales growth in 2017, with MOS field-effect transistor (FET) products growing by 6% to nearly $7.7 billion, IGBTs growing by 6% to $4.1 billion, and bipolar junction transistors growing by 4% to $875 million. Sales of RF/microwave power transistors and modules are projected to increase by 3% in 2017 to $960 million, according to the IC Insights OSD Report.
