9 September 2016

GaN device market to grow at 17% CAGR to $3438.4m in 2024

The global gallium nitride (GaN) device market is largely consolidated, with the top four companies collectively commanding more than 65% market share in 2015, states Transparency Market Research (TMR) in the report 'GaN Semiconductor Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016-2024'. The dominant firm Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) accounted for 19.2% of the market, followed by NXP Semiconductors N.V., GaN Systems Inc, and Cree Inc.

Regarding on-going R&D activities, efforts to eliminate issues related to the reliability of GaN semiconductors are expected to be an important focus of key vendors in the near future. Transparency Market Research forecasts that the GaN device market will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% over 2016-2024, increasing from $870.9m in 2015 to $3438.4m in 2024. Of the key end-use industries utilizing GaN, the aerospace & defense sector dominates, accounting for over 42% of the market in 2015.

Broadening applications and focus on R&D to boost demand in North America and Europe

North America and Europe are expected to remain the dominant regional markets for GaN devices over the next few years. The rising focus of the Europe Space Agency (ESA) on the increased usage of GaN across space projects and the use of GaN-based transistors in the military and defense sectors in North America will help the GaN device market to gain traction, reckons the report.

In the past few years, GaN technology has seen rapid advances and vast improvement in its ability to work under operating environments featuring high frequency, power density and temperature with improved linearity and efficiency. These advances have boosted the usage of GaN devices across an increased set of applications and have played an important role in the market's overall growth, notes the report.

In addition, the increased usage of GaN devices in the defense sector has emerged as a key market driver. The continuous rise in defense budgets of developing and developed countries as well as the demand for inclusion of the most advanced products in the arsenal of national and international military will propel the market in the near future.

High cost to hinder growth

Compared with silicon-based devices, GaN-based devices are relatively expensive due to the high production costs, including the high cost of fabrication, packaging and support electronics. Silicon-based semiconductors have seen a significant decline in their costs over the past few years, making the high cost of GaN a challenge that could hinder its large-scale adoption.

The issue can be tackled by producing GaN in bulk. However, there is currently no widespread method that can be used for this purpose due to the necessity for high operating pressure and temperature as well as the limited scalability of the material, concludes the report.

Tags: GaN power devices

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