The digital power conversion market will experience substantial growth over the next several years as users demand more advanced features and functions in their products. Darnell Group's just-released fifth-edition analysis of Digital Power Electronics Market Trends and Forecasts finds that this growth will be led by a surge in 2014 and settle down into a pattern of rapid growth for the next five years. Driven by growth across a number of sectors including communications, computers, solid-state lighting and a growing smart grid and energy management sector, the combined external ac-dc, embedded ac-dc and dc-dc converter modules markets will reach nearly $10 billion dollars in 2019.
Over 35 tables and graphs are presented in this report covering the external ac-dc power supply market, the embedded ac-dc power supply market and the dc-dc converter module power supply market. The report only looks at the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market. The focus of this comprehensive analysis will be to provide decision makers with a detailed and insightful look at the current and future opportunities available in the digital power supply market.
The value of digital power has always been the functions it can provide, and that functionality has become more defined and focused over the past several years as users demand a number of specific features and operations such as auto-compensation, PMBus capabilities, loop control, monitoring and reporting, parameter setting, OTP memory capability, etc. Although these features and functions vary by industry, there are a number of common requirements identified. Among these, auto-compensation was cited as one of the of the more desired features of digital power as it eliminates a substantial burden from the power supply design and results in a more robust power supply for the life of the power supply.
Applications have already been identified that favor digital control, and products have been developed that meet those requirements or offer certain features that are critical to updated system designs. These are the so-called “legacy†applications for digital power management and control. They are large markets that will keep the traditional distributed power architectures in use for many years, with many of them incorporating digital control at some level. In contrast, new power architectures identified in this report incorporate digital power right from the beginning, and that makes them different from the legacy architectures.
Based on these trends, Darnell Group has identified the current “best†markets for digital power. Some have emerged from the slow-but-inevitable march toward a “Smart Gridâ€; others come from standards and the demand for increased energy efficiency.
The further adoption of digital power technology to smart grid and other energy measurement/management applications presents a host of opportunities. In fact, these applications face implementation challenges that are both business- and technology-related. For example, digital control of power allows reductions of power consumption of the installed equipment base and, at the same time, offers telemetry and the ability to monitor, control and alert to tampering and energy theft, and respond to tampering in various ways. As a result, robust telemetry, monitoring and anti-tampering capabilities, along with securing the grid, are all critical.
The adoption of digital power technology will play an especially important role in the dc-dc converter module market, with applications ranging from information and communications technology (ICT) to portable applications and electronic devices. Although the dc-dc converter module segment will maintain a smaller unit market than either the embedded ac-dc or external ac-dc market, it will record the highest degree of digital penetration among its applications throughout the forecast period. It is also projected to grow three and a have times as fast as the overall dc-dc converter module unit market. Digital Power Electronics Market Trends and Forecasts is available for immediate delivery.
