Global Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) Market (by IGBT Type, Application, & Region): Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2022-2026)

Global Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) Market (by IGBT Type, Application, & Region): Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2022-2026)

Market Insight:

A bipolar transistor with an insulated gate terminal is known as an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). IGBTs are excellent for high-voltage, high-current applications and require a low voltage on the gate to keep a system running. The IGBT incorporates the key characteristics of both BJTs (Bipolar Junction Transistors) and MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors) into a single device. Fast switching speed along with zero gate drive current, ease of drive, high pulse current tolerance, high input impedance, and high voltage capabilities are the key benefits of IGBTs over other types of transistor devices.

The market is predicted to rise significantly as a result of various factors such as increasing EV adoption, renewable energy generation, household appliance usage, and so on. The global IGBT market is estimated to be valued at US$8.38 billion in 2023, progressing at a CAGR of 10.54% during the forecast period.

Segment Covered:

• By IGBT Type: In terms of type IGBT type, the report includes the bifurcation of market into three segments: IGBT Module, Discrete IGBT and Intelligent Power Module (IPM). IGBT Module segment lead the market, accounting for largest share of the market because IGBT modules are widely employed in three primary fields: industrial control and power, new energy, and inverter white home appliances and other applications. The discrete IGBT market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, due to simple structure and low cost.
• By Application: The report identifies five segments of the global IGBT market, on the basis of application: Automotive, Home Appliances, Industrial, Power Grid and Railway and Renewable Energy. The automotive segment dominated the market. The growth in automotive sector was primarily driven by rising adoption of electric vehicles.

Geographic Coverage:

• According to this report, the global IGBT market can be divided into four major regions, on the basis of geographical areas: Asia Pacific (China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific), Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Rest of Europe), North America (The US, and Rest of North America) and Rest of World.

Asia Pacific enjoyed the major share of the global market share, primarily owing to the presence of various global and domestic players especially in China. China is the leading IGBT market in the Asia Pacific region. The rapid growth of automotive market in countries like China, Japan, Taiwan, etc. would boost IGBT market of Asia Pacific region in the years to come. North America IGBT market provides lucrative opportunities in the coming years. The rapid development in industrial sector and government initiatives to strengthen semiconductor chips production capacity, gives a resilient opportunity for IGBT market.

Top Impacting Factors:

Growth Drivers

• Rising Wind Power generation
• Increasing Solar Power generation
• Escalating Industrial Activities
• Increasing Adoption Of Electric Vehicles

Challenges

• Latch Up Issue in IGBT
• Availability of Alternatives

Trends

• Rising Adoption of SiC
• New Generation IGBTs
• Driver: Escalating Industrial Activities

Industrial production is an integral part of a country’s economy. The output of an industrial sector is measured by industrial production. Manufacturing, mining, and utilities are all part of the industrial sector. IGBTs are widely used for high power industrial applications including motor drive inverters, switch mode power supplies, uninterruptible power supplies, etc. With the rise in industrial production, the use of these electrical components are increasing. Therefore, the IGBT market would grow.

• Challenge: Latch Up Issue in IGBT

Latch-up is a serious issue in IGBT. Latch-Up is a functional chip failure associated with excessive current going through the chip and this is mainly caused by weak design. It can be caused by various factors, such as static electricity, noise, or application of a voltage to the input pin outside the power supply voltage range. IGBTs have an unavoidable parasitic component inherent to the structure and that component is responsible for some of the most common failure mode like static latch up and dynamic latch up. This could be a huge challenge to the IGBT market, moreover this problem can be resolve by improving the design of IGBT.

• Trend: Rising Adoption of SiC

SiC (silicon carbide), compared to Si in semiconductor aspect, has wider bandgap and higher breakdown voltage. SiC devices compared to Si-based devices, has higher efficiency, higher switching frequencies, and offers better overall performance. Using SiC, it is possible to make devices, such as schottky barrier diodes and MOSFETs, which achieve high voltages, low turn-on resistance and fast operation. Since SiC occupies a very small area of the chip and have a high current density, their ability to withstand short circuits that can cause thermal breaks tends to be lower than that of silicon-based devices. IGBT power devices can be fabricated by SiC successfully and that would boost the market in the coming years.

The COVID-19 Analysis:

The global impact of COVID-19 has been unexpected and staggering, with insulated gate bipolar transistors witnessing a negative impact on demand across all regions. Insulated gate bipolar transistor manufacturing has been extremely disturbed in the first quarter of 2020, due to the lack of components availability. Moreover, unavailability of the total workforce affected the insulated gate bipolar transistor production capacity and market growth. Due to the imposed lockdown, the automakers around the world cut the orders as vehicle sales plummeted. This was an important factor that had a detrimental impact on the market of insulated gate bipolar transistors. Thus, in the year 2020, the market experienced slow growth rate as compared to pre pandemic level. As lockdown restrictions were normalized in the second half of 2020, demand for power semiconductors were returned to pre pandemic level.

Analysis of Key Players:

The global IGBT market is dominated with the presence of few major players. The top three players occupied more than 50% share of the market. The key players of the global IGBT market are:

• Hitachi, Ltd.
• Mitsubishi Electric
• Toshiba Corporation
• Infineon Technology
• ABB Ltd.
• NXP Semiconductor N.V.
• Renesas Electronic Corporation
• STMicroelectronics N.V.
• Fuji Electric
• Semikron
• Danfoss Group
• StarPower Semiconductor
• Vincotech,
• ROHM Semiconductor

Infineon is more diverse in terms of types of IGBT it provides and the company is present in all the regions. In China’s IGBT market, global players took most market share. Infineon took most of the shares of China’s IGBT market. Among domestic players, Starpower acquired the highest share. It is expected that StarPower to gain further market share over the next few years on the back of the positive outlook for the China IGBT market, and China’s semiconductor localization trend.