LONDON – The power semiconductor market grew by 9 percent to just under $18 billion in 2011, with Infineon Technologies AG at the top of the ranking, according to market analyst IMS Research Ltd.
The market did well in the first half of 2011 but slowed in Q3 and declined sharply in Q4 because of an inventory correction, IMS said.
The market for power modules did much better than the market for discrete devices. Power modules market grew by 32 percent in 2011, while discrete market grew by 3 percent. The main drivers of the growth of power module revenues were solar energy, car production and consumer appliances.
Modules were favored by the strength of slow moving nature of the solar and automotive markets while discrete were hit by the volatility of the consumer and white goods markets.
Infineon remained the leading supplier of power discretes and modules, according to IMS Research. Other manufacturers whose share of the market grew included power module specialists Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric and Semikron.
"Mitsubishi Electric maintained market leadership in power modules, enabling it to narrow the gap with Infineon in the total market,” said Richard Eden, senior market analyst at IMS Research, in a statement.
In 2011 Japanese manufacturers accounted for 51 percent of the power module market, up from 48 percent in 2010.
Top Ten Suppliers of Power Semiconductor Discretes and Modules Worldwide in 2011:
1. Infineon
2. Mitsubishi Electric
3. Toshiba
4. STMicroelectronics
5. International Rectifier
6. Fuji Electric
7. Fairchild
8. Vishay
9. Renesas
10. Semikron
Related links and articles:
www.imsresearch.com
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