According to IMS Research’s latest study, Infineon Technologies retained its position as the world’s largest supplier of power semiconductors, increasing its market share to 9%. It was one of the few leading suppliers to record revenue growth in 2008. In total, eight of the 15 largest suppliers of power semiconductors experienced a decline in their business in 2008, with all of them likely to see further drops this year.

One of the largest gains in market share was achieved by Texas Instruments. Although it only held a 4.5% share of the $26 billion power semiconductor market, it was again ranked #1 for power ICs, by growing its share to 9.1% in 2008. In addition to penetrating new markets with its power IC products, the company also re-entered the power discrete market last year with its acquisition of CICLON Semiconductor.

Outside of the top 15 suppliers, one of the largest revenue and market share gains was seen by Hitachi, driven by its success in the growing traction market. Traction is often overlooked within the power industry, particularly by those companies focusing on higher volume, faster moving sectors like computing and consumer. Although very small in comparison, traction was in fact the fastest growing sector for power discretes and modules in 2008, growing by around 25% - not insignificant given this sector actually generated more revenues than the closely watched renewable energy sector.

Even with the help of relatively buoyant sectors like renewable energy and traction, a strong rebound in growth for power semiconductors is not predicted and instead a gradual return to positive growth is anticipated. Despite the cautious sentiment within the industry that the bottom has been hit and that growth will soon return, annual growth of just 8% is forecast for 2010. Furthermore, IMS Research predicts that the power semiconductor market will not return to its 2008 size until 2012 at the earliest.

Provided by Ash Sharma, Research Director for IMS Research’s Power & Energy Group.

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