Power-industry overview
Last year was the first since 2000 that the semiconductor industry?s revenues dropped. The power-management-IC segment, however, bucked the trend by eking out a 1% gain. Likewise, the decidedly unglamorous power-transistor and -diode segment, already at almost $15 billion, promises to continue to grow.
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor -- EDN, October 22, 2009
Last year was the first since 2000 that the semiconductor industry’s revenues dropped. The power-management-IC segment, however, bucked the trend by eking out a 1% gain. Likewise, the decidedly unglamorous power-transistor and -diode segment, already at almost $15 billion, promises to continue to grow. How does the power-semiconductor industry manage to grow in the face of this worldwide recession?
Increasing the power efficiency of products pays the owner back in savings. For example, a data-farm server’s energy costs exceed its price after only four years. Utility-bill savings—for both the server and the air conditioning to cool the server farm—more than pay back the small premium for a more efficient server. In addition, government and industry groups, such as Energy Star and Climate Savers, are establishing minimum power efficiencies and power factors for power-supply equipment. The power devices that enable these savings will continue to represent a successful market as long as energy and environmental costs are concerns.
Power vendors are seizing the opportunity to entrench or increase their position in the industry by investing in new production capabilities. For example, Infineon opened a 100,000-foot MOSFET facility in Malaysia, and First Solar, a manufacturer of photovoltaic cells, established itself as the cost leader in the solar industry with its monolithic-thin-film-module manufacturing process, investing in plants in the United States, Germany, and Malaysia. It takes guts to invest in a down market, but their confidence should pay off over the next several years.
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