Top three trends reshaping the Electronic components market

Janifha Evangeline

Today owing to rapid advances in IoT, AI, wireless technologies as well as wireless charging are some of the biggest drivers behind the development of new electronic components. These coupled with digitalization across several manufacturing industries with big trends such as Industry 4.0, smart cities, & health care, green engineering, 5G networks as well as autonomous mobility, there are complex challenges around size, power consumption, connectivity, sensor processing & even ease of implementation. Therefore, these are fueling some of the biggest component trends in the industry.

However, over the next few years, one of the biggest issues not just the industry but also the world would face is energy consumption specifically with a increasing portfolio of Internet of Things devices. Furthermore, there is also a huge concern for the environment & the necessity for reducing greenhouse gases, that has put more pressure on the sector for developing new components which address these concerns.

Currently, designers face 2 big challenges which include decreasing power consumption & enhancing efficiency. And this is where you will witness 3 key component trends that are advancing over the next few years and these include gallium nitride (GaN) power devices, battery management systems (BAM) for electric vehicles & energy harvesting.

GAN Power devices

GaN is a wide-bandgap material which provides higher switching frequency, higher power density, lower losses, & better thermal management when compared to its silicon counterparts. In terms of basic properties such as bandgap, critical electric field as well as electron mobility, they have all been proven to be better than silicon. A big area of adoption is in industrial motor control where GaN can replace MOSFET’s and IGBTs. Therefore, we should expect to witness new GaN HEMT transistors as well as power stages by leveraging proprietary GaN technologies for achieving higher efficiency & lower on-resistance.

EV battery management systems

A BMS manages as well as monitors rechargeable battery cells. It is a highly critical component of an Electric Vehicle & comprises of numerous subsystems which render cell balancing, protection as well as status notification on the health of batteries.

While safety is a major issue, the BMSes also play a significant role in energy savings. Some of the challenges for the product designers include the optimization of power consumption through monitoring & controlling functions & ensuring the safety as well as long life of the battery. However, at the same time, they should also reduce size & weight. While the BMS market is already a huge industry it is anticipated to reach USD 10.8 billion by 2027.

However, the surge in EV demand coupled with government mandates will lead to new advances & demand for these safety systems. All the major automakers have stated that EV production goals of forty per cent to fifty per cent of their annual U.S. Volumes by 2030.

Range anxiety is still another thing for consumers despite the newer Electric Vehicles delivering more than two hundred miles on a complete charge. BMSes are crucial for eliminating this fear by maximizing efficiency. Furthermore, to helping extend driving range, power management IC makers also are integrated with reducing design complexity & costs. Some of the manufacturers are rendering wireless BMSes which are compliant with ASIL-D requirements.

Industry players trust that wBMS will become a huge trend in the Electric Vehicle market owing to its lower design complexity as well as cost when compared to systems which use traditional wire harnessing. These eliminate cables, electronic connectors as well as passive components that result in a weight reduction which extends the driving range.

Energy-harvesting devices

Energy-harvesting technology is anticipated to witness wider adoption, making devices to operate without batteries with the proliferation of IoT edge devices and wearables such as emerging applications such as health-care wearables as well as remote health-care monitoring. While energy harvesting can either be used autonomously or as an independent source of power or also as an auxiliary power source for batteries, these harness small amounts of ambient energy from a wide range of sources.

The road ahead

In the past decade, smartphones have seen a significant surge in demand particularly across developing economies. Furthermore, the demand for 5G chipsets is progressively growing in the developed nations along with the introduction of 5G-enabled smartphones & budding demand for car automation systems as well as telecom equipment. Hence, with the rise in production of 5G chipsets, it is presumed that the IC sector would register strong growth during the forecast period.