Semiconductor discrete devices, as intermediate products between the whole electronics industry and the upstream raw material industry, are one of the basic and core areas of the semiconductor industry. It covers consumer electronics, security, industrial control, automotive electronics, new energy and other supporting fields, with a wide range of applications and large consumption. With the development of new technical characteristics of semiconductor power device industry, its application field will also be expanding.

According to IC Insights, global shipments of discrete devices (excluding optoelectronics and sensors) accounted for 44% of semiconductor components in 2016, the largest sales branch of semiconductor components, but its global sales accounted for only 5% - 6% of the total sales of the semiconductor industry.

　　Figure 1 Global Semiconductor Discrete Device Market Size Data Source: WSTS

Figure 2 Global Growth Rate of Semiconductor Discrete Devices Source: WSTS

Semiconductor discrete devices serve a wide range of industries, which are not significantly affected by the cyclical changes of the downstream single industry, but have a certain correlation with the macroeconomic prosperity. It is found that the growth rate of global semiconductor discrete device sales is highly positively correlated with the growth rate of global GDP.

The Difference and Market Scale of Two Kinds of Power Semiconductors

Power semiconductor discrete devices are the core devices used in power electronics technology for efficient power morphology conversion, power control and processing, and energy regulation. They are mainly used for rectification, voltage stabilization, switching and mixing of power electronic devices. They are widely used in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, electronic instrumentation, industry and automatic control. Systems, computers and peripheral equipment, network communications and other fields have a wide range of applications. In recent years, China's power semiconductor discrete device industry has maintained a relatively rapid development trend, benefiting from the transfer of international electronics manufacturing industry and the pull of downstream demand for automobiles, photovoltaics, computers, communications and consumer electronics.

There are many kinds of power semiconductor, which can be divided into diode, rectifier bridge, thyristor, MOSFED, IGBT and so on.

Chart 3 Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Power Semiconductors

3 Downstream Demand Analysis: Rapid Development of New Energy Vehicles, Photovoltaic and LED

The traditional application fields of power semiconductor discrete devices include consumer electronics, computer and peripherals, telecommunications, power appliances and other industries. With the development of new technologies and technologies such as discrete device chip manufacturing and device packaging, the hot application fields such as photovoltaic, smart grid, automotive electronics and LED lighting have gradually grown into the emerging market of semiconductor discrete devices.

　　Figure 4 Global Power Semiconductor Applications

Figure 5 China Power Semiconductor Applications Source: Gartner

In the traditional application field, power semiconductor discrete devices lead the industrial development mode to energy-saving transformation, realize the transformation and upgrading of household appliances industry, and optimize the industrial structure. With the rapid development of Internet of Things, cloud computing, new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, emerging areas have become an important market to support the development of power semiconductor discrete devices.

In the downstream applications of power semiconductors in China, the consumption of 3C electronics accounted for a large proportion, while that of automotive electronics accounted for only 15%. In the future, with the popularization of new energy vehicles, Shrimp Electronics is expected to become a breakthrough in the power semiconductor industry.

3.1 Demand End 1: Automotive Electronics

The automotive industry is the largest application market of semiconductor discrete devices in the world. At present, the top 10 manufacturers of discrete devices in the world mainly make revenue from automotive electronics. According to the calculation method of the Vehicle Electrical and Electrical Committee of China Automobile Industry Association, at least one vehicle rectifier is required for each new vehicle generator, and an average of 9 power vehicle diodes are required for each vehicle rectifier.

In 2017, China will produce 29.918 million automobiles, and the demand for high-power diode chips for automobiles will be 29.918 million*9=261 million. In addition, the gradual popularization of new energy vehicles and intelligent driving will greatly increase the demand for semiconductor discrete devices. According to statistics, semiconductor discrete devices account for about 10% of the value of new energy vehicles. According to the 'Notice of the National Strategic Emerging Industries Development Plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan' issued by the State Council in 2016, by 2020, China's new energy vehicles will have produced and sold more than 2 million vehicles in that year, with a cumulative production and sales of more than 5 million vehicles.

　　On the other hand, power modules such as MOSFET and IGBT are the core power converters of DC charging piles.Demand has gradually increased. According to the survey of public data, the current price of DC charging pile is 0.6-0.8 yuan per w, that is, a 40 Kw power DC charging pile, which costs about 25-30 thousand yuan. Among them, the value of MOSFET or IGBT power module accounts for about 20% of the cost, that is, 5000-6000 yuan. The popularity of charging pile has stimulated the demand of power semiconductor.

3.2 Demand End 2: Photovoltaic Industry

Photovoltaic diodes account for about 3 to 5 of the cost of standard photovoltaic modules (calculated at 220 W), which is small in cost and low in price elasticity. According to the conventional configuration,About 5,000 solar junction boxes are needed for 1MW photovoltaic modules, and about 5 photovoltaic diodes are needed for each solar junction box on average. Therefore, about 25,000 photovoltaic diodes are needed for 1MW photovoltaic modules and 25 million photovoltaic diodes are needed for 1GW photovoltaic modules.

　　According to the photovoltaic installation index published by the State Energy Administration of China in the period of 2017-2020, the average power plant index is 54.5 GW, and the leading indicator is 32 GW, totaling 86.5 GW. It is estimated that the installed capacity of photovoltaic in China will exceed 200 GW by 2020.

　　It is predicted that the demand for photovoltaic diodes in China will be about 25 million * 20 = 5 billion by 2020.

　　3.3 Demand End 3: LED Lighting

　　LED is a new type of green light source product, which has the characteristics of energy saving, environmental protection, long life and small size, and is widely used in various indicators.Display, decoration, backlight, general lighting and urban night scene and other fields. At present, LED has become an Eco-light source with high cost performance. It has entered the lighting substitution market in an all-round way. With the global trend of eliminating incandescent lamps and limiting the use of fluorescent lamps (including mercury), the global LED lighting market has shown explosive growth.

　　3.4 Other Demand Sides

　　Intelligent meters and power transmission and transformation: Diodes and bridge rectifiers are needed in smart meters to process circuit data, so the development of smart meters market will drive the market demand of semiconductor discrete device products. Generally, the circuit of each single-phase smart meter is composed of power supply circuit and data processing circuit. The power supply circuit needs 1-2 rectifier bridges and the data processing circuit needs 9-13 diodes. The renewal and replacement of smart meters are advancing steadily, which guarantees the demand of power semiconductor.

　　Household appliances: Power semiconductor devices can control and convert the power of driving household appliances. They are the key components of household appliances, which directly affect the performance and quality of household appliances. Under the background of overall upgrading and market expansion of household appliances, semiconductor discrete devices will have stable market development prospects with the development of household appliances industry.

　　4. Competition pattern: foreign giants occupy high-end market, and low-and middle-end domestic manufacturers welcome opportunities

　　Influenced by cost pressures, international power semiconductor giants in recent years focus on high-voltage Mosfet, IGBT and other high-end applications in the automotive market, and gradually abandon the production of low and medium-end diodes.At present, Vishay plays a leading role in low and middle-end diodes, while the development strategies of international giants such as Infineon, Ansenmei, Italian-French Semiconductor are mainly automotive electronics and high-end IGBT.

　　The main products of domestic power semiconductor enterprises are different and do not constitute a direct competitive relationship.

　　Figure 6 Top Ten Power Semiconductor Companies in the World

　　Chart 7 A Shares Listed Power Semiconductor Company

　　Figure 8 Comparison of Power Semiconductor Enterprises in China and Foreign Countries

　　The main products of Taiwan's power semiconductor enterprises are mostly diodes and low-voltage MOSFETs, which have high coincidence with the products of mainland enterprises and are the main competitors of mainland enterprises. Generally speaking, different regions have formed their respective advantages through industrial division of labor.The United States has an absolute leading edge in the field of power IC. Europe also has a strong power in power IC and power discrete devices. Japan has a strong competitive edge in power discrete devices, but it mainly focuses on chips, with a large number of manufacturers.