Digital power market forecast to quadruple in five years

The market for digital power supplies is projected to grow to almost $12.5 billion in 2017 and the digital power IC market is forecast to be worth over $2.5 billion.

Source: IMS Research (acquired by IHS, Inc.)

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The digital power market is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the power management industry for power supply and power IC manufacturers. Early adopters of digital power components include applications such as servers and telecommunications/data-communications, however, manufacturers in other sectors are now beginning to adopt digital power solutions, creating more opportunities. IMS Research (now part of IHS) recently published its first dedicated analysis of the digital power market, called The World Market for Digital Power. The report analyses both the digital power supply and digital power IC markets and provides forecasts to 2017.

The total global market for digital power components is forecast to quadruple to $15 billion from 2012 to 2017. The market for digital power supplies is projected to grow to almost $12.5 billion in 2017 and the digital power IC market is forecast to be worth over $2.5 billion. The digital power IC market is projected to grow at a faster rate as they are used in the end-equipment at board level and also in digital power supplies.

Report author Jonathon Eykyn stated, “Whilst there is already an established market for digital power components, especially in sever, telecommunication and data-communication applications, adoption by other applications is predicted to occur rapidly and drive aggressive growth.”

Applications outside of the server and telecommunication sectors are beginning to adopt digital control and digital management solutions as manufacturers become more aware of the benefits they can offer compared with some analog products. These include reducing the overall bill of materials cost by reducing the number of discrete components, reducing the overall footprint, increasing power density, providing the ability to monitor and optimise power levels and system requirements whilst in operation and speeding up product time to market. Over two-thirds of manufacturers and designers surveyed predicted that more than 10% of their products will have digital control or digital management in 2015.

Eykyn added, “There are still barriers to adoption with 27% of manufacturers and designers surveyed for this report stating that cost was still the largest barrier. This highlights lack of knowledge from some potential implementers regarding the overall cost savings that digital solutions can provide and shows that there is still some way to go in educating designers at OEMs/ODMs."

The full report is available from IMS Research  now and includes analysis of the opportunities for ac-dc, dc-dc and dc-ac power supplies along with ac-dc, isolated dc-dc and non-isolated dc-dc switching regulators and converters.