Power supply shortages are expected to improve in the second half of this year

In the upswing, the power device market was sent away in 2010. Even if the production capacity of Infineon, Mitsubishi Electric, IR, Fairchild and Renesas is fully opened, the power device shortage continued from 2009 to 2010 has not been eased. As the opening year of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” in 2011, the supply of power devices remains tight. The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" pointed out that we must vigorously develop seven strategic emerging industries. Three of them, namely, new energy, new energy vehicles, and energy conservation and emission reduction, all use power semiconductor devices as the key components.

The current strong growth in communications, automotive, and home appliances has driven the demand for power devices to skyrocket. The increase in production capacity involves a series of procedures such as capital investment, order arrival time, and equipment commissioning. The expansion rate of upstream semiconductor manufacturers is far behind the market growth. The contradiction between supply and demand of power devices is still difficult to reach in the short term. Hu Fengping, a senior engineer in the power management market at Infineon Technologies (China) Co., Ltd.'s Industrial and Diversified Electronics Market Division, believes that the tight supply of power devices will continue to improve until the second half of 2011.

Between 2005 and 2010, the average annual growth rate of the global power semiconductor market exceeded 15%. With the global economy gradually picking up, the power semiconductor market will only grow faster. In recent years, with the continuous development of China’s economy and the country’s large-scale investment in electricity, transportation and infrastructure, the domestic power semiconductor device market has developed particularly rapidly, and its share in the global market is increasing, with only high-power semiconductors. The market size of devices has soared from less than 3 billion yuan in 2005 to more than 7 billion yuan in 2010, accounting for more than 40% of the global market. China has become the world's largest demand market for high-power power electronic devices.

Although China's power semiconductor device market has a large capacity, but from the product point of view, European, American and Japanese manufacturers have an absolute dominant position. According to Chen Yu, deputy general manager of Lumber Group Electronics, the localization rate of domestic high-power semiconductor devices is only about 30%.

High-power thyristors and rectifier modules due to relatively mature technology, conventional products can be fully localized, in this regard, domestic products are still relatively strong competitiveness. However, in some fields that require high currents and high voltages, many domestic products still remain at the level of late-stage encapsulation using imported chips in the country, and development is greatly constrained.

Currently, domestic manufacturers of MOSFETs and IGBTs are basically using imported chips for later-stage packaging. There is no real-volume commercial product with completely independent intellectual property rights. Of course, this is also an emerging field in which the country strongly supports development. At present, several domestic companies are investing heavily in researching products with their own core technologies. It is believed that there will be considerable development in the coming years.

The power semiconductor device drives the control chip, which is an important guarantee for reliable operation of the power device. Most of the current market is still imported products, but domestic products have brought about a more pleasant performance. This part has the smallest technological gap with the international leading level, and in some respects even exceeds imported products.

With the large-scale domestic power grid reform, new energy power generation, railway construction, and the popularization of high-speed electric locomotives, as well as the country’s large investment in industry, military, and basic engineering, it has created a very good opportunity for China’s domestic power electronics industry. Chen Hao said that the level of power devices determines the level of development of the entire industry, not only to be the world leader in traditional devices, but also in the new high-power devices such as IGBT also made breakthroughs, therefore, placed in front of the company's task is quite arduous.

As a local company specializing in the R&D of power semiconductor device driver control chips, Lokmuyuan Electronics is technically sufficient to compete with imported products, among which IGBT drive control chips have been highly recognized in the market, and even attracted European and Japanese famous power semiconductors. Manufacturers come to seek cooperation. Chen Hao said that in the coming period, an important plan for Lianmuyuan Electronics will be to further reduce the volume of existing products, improve the environmental adaptability, and lay the foundation for entering new energy vehicles.

“Actually, our existing products have been functionally tested in many electric vehicle manufacturers. The result of the experiment is that the functional and electrical properties fully meet the requirements of electric vehicles, but automotive-grade electronic devices require a wide range of work environment adaptability, and volume Smaller, this is a lot higher than the requirements of the traditional industrial level. And automotive-level devices are often more demanding on the cost, so this is indeed a big challenge for us." Chen Hao said.

The power device driver control chip of Lok Yuen Electronics Co., Ltd. is mainly used in applications such as motor frequency conversion, track traction, high-power power supply, and welding machine. Among them, the shipment of high-power IGBT driver chips has increased by more than 60% for six consecutive years. Chen Hao predicts that in the next three to five years, with the increase of national policy support, the downstream industry will accelerate the pace of development, the prospects for domestic power devices is very worth the wait.