Higher Power Requirements Abound
-- EDN, June 7, 2007
One of most important trends in both the ac-dc power supply and dc-dc converter markets is the move towards higher wattages, and the resulting focus on power supply efficiency. According to Darnell Group’s latest ac-dc power supply report, the embedded ac-dc power-supply market is expected to grow from $11.8 billion in 2007 to $14.8 billion in 2011, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7%. Wattage trends are experiencing their fastest growth in the higher-wattage segments, with the >1000W segment growing almost twice as fast as the overall market, at a CAGR of 9.2%. This is followed by the 501-1000W segment, which grew at a rate of 7.1%. Driving these growth rates are a number of power hungry applications such as blade servers, PoE equipment and plasma televisions.
Although much smaller than the ac-dc power supply market, the dc-dc converter market is also seeing a trend towards higher wattages. Darnell Group forecasts the worldwide isolated dc-dc converter module market to grow from $2.9 billion in 2007 to $4.0 billion in 2011, a CAGR of 8.4%. Again, leading this growth are the higher wattage categories, with the fastest growth occurring in the 100W+ range. The 100W-249W segment, which includes many of the Server applications as well as ATCA, which can be 200W per board, is growing at a CAGR of 10.2%. The 250W-500W segment, which includes many high-end server applications, is growing at an 11.4% CAGR. The >500W segment, which includes full bricks for wireless along with bus converters is growing at 9.5% annually. As the trend towards higher wattages in both the ac-dc and dc-dc markets continues, market forces and government regulations will combine to drive power supplies to higher levels of efficiency.
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