News that is good for the fast charging market is constantly coming to the market: On January 27, Apple’s latest first quarter 2021 financial report showed that driven by strong demand for iPhone 12, iPhone revenue in the first quarter increased by 17% year-on-year to a record high of US$65.6 billion. iPad revenue in the first quarter soared by 40%. Mac revenue has rewritten previous December records. Apple has placed orders for more than 90 million supply chain mobile phones in the first half of this year. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told the media that Apple is likely to launch 2-3 new gallium nitride chargers when it releases new iPhones and Macbooks this year, which will directly become the growth engine for the gallium nitride industry chain to take off.

IDC predicts that there will be huge growth opportunities for 5G smartphones in 2021, and predicts that the market will double from approximately 200 million units in 2020 to 500 million units. Xiaomi, Vivo, and Huawei have successively launched gallium nitride chargers for 5G flagship mobile phones. This year, while the COVID-19 epidemic has not been fully controlled, home schooling and online working have stimulated the growth of the laptop market, and demand for gallium nitride chargers that can meet faster, more efficient, and lighter laptop charging has begun to take off.

This year, has the gallium nitride charger market ushered in an inflection point in its development? 20W, 65W, and 100W gallium nitride chargers have been launched one after another. Which power products will become the mainstream in the market? How do gallium nitride chip manufacturers help terminal manufacturers launch fast charging products? How is the gallium nitride fast charging ecological chain progressing? Based on the latest consumer experience, the reporter interviewed Nanos Semiconductor Sales Director Li Wenhui, Innosec Marketing Director Zhou Wei, Product Application Manager Zou Yanbo, and Nitrosilicon Technology Sales Manager Wu Xin. They brought insights into the latest market trends and technical solution analysis in the industry.

When will the gallium nitride charger market reach an inflection point?

In 2018, Nanovi Semiconductor introduced gallium nitride (GaN) fast charging to the market for the first time. In 2020, industry colleagues saw that the mobile device market is huge. More than 100 GaNFast chargers have been put into mass production on the market. GaN technology has entered high-power markets such as electric vehicles, 5G, data centers and solar energy.

On January 26 this year, Navitas Semiconductor officially announced that its chip shipments have set a new record. It has successfully delivered more than 13 million gallium nitride (GaN) power ICs to the market, achieving zero product failures, reflecting the global mobile consumer electronics market is accelerating the adoption of gallium nitride chips to achieve fast charging of mobile devices and related equipment.

Innosec from Zhuhai, China, is one of the world's three major suppliers of silicon-based gallium nitride power chips. Last year, it shipped 4 million gallium nitride chips. Innosec's sales director Zhou Wei said in an interview with electronic enthusiasts that the company's shipments of gallium nitride chips are expected to increase by 10 times this year. He even optimistically estimated that last year global gallium nitride shipments were close to 15 million units, and this year it is estimated that shipments will exceed 100 million units.

As consumers have higher and higher requirements for the quality of life, the charger market is facing a series of challenges. For example, consumers want chargers to be more powerful and achieve faster charging speeds. However, at the same time, consumers also want chargers to be small and exquisite, and the price does not want to exceed too much. This has brought many problems to manufacturers and designers, such as efficiency, temperature, EMI, output interface protocol compatibility and other problems.

As one of the core materials of the third-generation semiconductor, GaN has three main characteristics - high switching frequency, large band gap, and lower on-resistance. It operates a hundred times faster than older traditional silicon (Si) technology, and when used in cutting-edge fast charger products, it can achieve performance that far exceeds existing products and triples the output power in the same size.

Picture: Li Wenhui, Sales Director of Navitas Semiconductor

Gallium nitride chargers currently have two major difficulties in the field of market promotion. Li Wenhui, sales director of Navitas Semiconductor, said: First, GaN fast charging is a new type of charger, and market acceptance requires a certain cultivation period; secondly, the price of gallium nitride chargers is more than double that of traditional chargers, and price drops are an important prerequisite for the promotion of gallium nitride chargers. In 2018, the price of a 45W GaN charger was US$60. By last year, Xiaomi's 65W GaN charger had reached 149 yuan (US$23), and even third-party brands had reached 99 yuan. Our goal is that by the end of 2022, the price of GaN chargers and silicon chargers will be similar. After the price reaches a reasonable range, I believe the market turning point will come.

Zhou Ji, the sales director of Innosec, is more optimistic. He believes that the turning point of the market will be seen in about a year. The price of GaN chargers is close to that of silicon chargers, and the turning point will come. Innosec has mass-produced the first-generation gallium nitride power IC product INN650D 02 last year. The second-generation product is expected to be launched in the first half of this year. Its performance has been further improved. At the same time, a wafer can manufacture more devices, reducing costs and increasing production capacity. These are all favorable guarantees for market shipments.

Picture: Nitrosilicon Technology Sales Manager Wu Junjun

Wu Junjun, sales manager of Nitrogen Silicon Technology, told reporters that GaN chargers are expected to reach an inflection point in the market in two years. By 2023, gallium nitride chips will not only be popular in chargers, but also in power adapters, lighting power supplies, TV power supplies, etc.

65W gallium nitride chargers have become mainstream in the market, with cost and versatility being the two key factors

According to electronic enthusiast survey data, 10 mobile phone manufacturers have launched 18 gallium nitride fast charging models in 2020. OPPO, realme, Xiaomi, Nubia, Samsung, Lenovo, and ZTE have all entered the gallium nitride fast charging market. Driven by mobile phone brands and third-party brands, gallium nitride fast charging has hundreds of 20W-120W gallium nitride fast charging products with quite a variety of styles. In addition, notebook computer manufacturers have also entered the gallium nitride fast charging market, especially high-power 65W and above. Representative brands include Lenovo, Asus, Dell, and Xiaomi.

Recently, Li Wenhui, Sales Director of Navitas Semiconductor, told reporters: "Since the second half of last year, GaN chargers have begun to be launched in large quantities. We basically have orders for 2-3 customized charger products every month, and the back-end market represented by third-party brands is gradually increasing. Gallium nitride chargers with 60W-100W specifications have gradually become the mainstream of the market."

65W has become the mainstream gallium nitride charger configuration. Li Wenhui analyzed that it is driven by two major reasons. First of all, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Huawei have successively launched 65W gallium nitride chargers on the market, and this wave has market applications; secondly, the general power requirement for laptop adapters is 65W, and most new laptops use USB-C ports. The gallium nitride chargers adopt two-port and three-port designs, taking into account the USB-A port, which can bring more mobile terminal charging.

Talking about the changes in the fast charging market, Innosec Sales Director Zhou has pointed out that USB PD and Type-C will bring changes to chargers. Last year, Type-C and USB PD fast charging became popular in notebook computers. Especially in the second half of last year, power tool and small household appliance manufacturers also began to use USB PD fast charging. Major mobile phone manufacturers and computer manufacturers have begun to move closer to this standard. In addition, the power consumption of 5G mobile phones has increased significantly. The battery capacity of mainstream mobile phones generally reaches more than 4,000 mAh. The 65W gallium nitride charger can achieve a full charge in 45 minutes and can reach 20%-30% in 10 minutes, solving the problem of charging anxiety.

Picture: Innosec Product Application Manager Zou Yanbo

Zou Yanbo, product application manager of Innosec, analyzed that 65W can become a mainstream configuration mainly due to the demand of customers and consumers for cost-effective products. Although the performance of 100W to 200W gallium nitride fast charging has been greatly improved, the increase in required circuit boards will lead to an increase in size and the price is too high. It is mainly used for charging gaming laptops, and the current demand will not increase much.

According to the mandatory requirements of the State Grid, switching power supplies with a power of more than 75W are required to add a PFC circuit to improve the power factor and improve the load characteristics. High-power gallium nitride chargers must add PFC circuits, and the BOM cost will increase significantly. However, consumers in the market pursue cost-effective products. 65W can be adapted to universal charging of mobile phones and laptops. The cost of the charger is controlled within a reasonable range, which is conducive to consumers' conversion from silicon chargers to new generation gallium nitride chargers.

Innosec's gallium nitride chips have been used in 100W single C fast charging, 100W multi-port fast charging, 65W single C ultra-thin fast charging, 150W LED power supplies, dual-channel lidar and other types of products.

Picture: 100W multi-port fast charging demo using Innosec chip

At this year's CES2021 online exhibition, the Omega charger equipped with two NanoVis GaNFast power ICs (NV6127) won the Innovation Award. It is the world's smallest 200W gallium nitride charger and is up to 66% smaller than traditional chargers. In terms of compatibility, it is compatible with all major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Qualcomm, OPPO, and Vivo.

Figure: 200W mini charger using nanomicro power chip

Nitrogen Silicon Technology sales manager Wu Junjun introduced to reporters their 65W fast charging product application series, including 65W mini PD fast charging, 65W 1A1C gallium nitride fast charging, and 65W 2C1A gallium nitride fast charging. Among them, the 65W mini single C and 1C1A are domestically produced versions, including control IC, synchronous rectification, and protocol IC, all of which are domestically produced ICs. In addition, in the high-power 120W field, Nitrous Silicon has successfully solved the circuit interference problem of the industry's PFC+LLC topology gallium nitride fast charging after several months of application research, and launched a 120W 2C1A gallium nitride fast charging solution.

On Bilibili, we saw feedback from a consumer:

A media person nicknamed "Yijiu Wuqi" said that at the Xiaomi 11 press conference, he did not pay too much attention to Xiaomi's mobile phones. Instead, he was deeply impressed by Xiaomi's 65W gallium nitride charger. As soon as the press conference was over, he went to the official website to order this gallium nitride charger.

He said that the pain points of using traditional chargers are that they are large, dedicated and inconvenient to carry. He owns multiple terminal devices, and especially hopes to be able to charge multiple devices with just one charger when he is on a business trip. Xiaomi's 65W gallium nitride charger is only one-third the size of a traditional silicon charger. He tested Xiaomi's single-port gallium nitride charger and was generally satisfied with the charging performance. In addition, he also tested other dual-port gallium nitride chargers on the market and found that when charging at the same time, the USB A would cut off the current and the Type-C port could be used normally. The two will influence each other. In addition, he also tried to use a 65W gallium nitride charger to charge the Apple Macbook Pro, and there was no problem surfing the Internet, watching videos, and editing videos.

Are gallium nitride chips out of stock? The formation of ecological chain boosts charger market momentum

The GaN power supply market penetration rate is gradually increasing, and various manufacturers are actively deploying. Although the GaN power supply market is still relatively small compared to the 32.8 billion silicon power supply market, Yole predicts that the GaN market will grow by 55% from 2021 to 2023, and the GaN power supply market will reach US$420 million in 2023. Currently on the market, Navitas from Ireland, Power Integrations from the United States, and Innosec from China are the world's top three suppliers of fast charging solutions based on gallium nitride chips.

In the last quarter of last year, semiconductor chip shortages began to rise. Entering 2021, the chip industry's shortages seem to show no signs of easing. MCU, Bluetooth chips, TWS headset NOR Flash chips, and automotive chip shortages are spreading around the world. According to industry insiders, the insufficient production capacity of 8-inch factories will continue until the end of the first half of this year. To fundamentally solve the production capacity problem, chip manufacturers can only migrate 8-inch foundry orders to 12-inch production. A Taiwanese analyst believes that the global 8-inch production capacity problem will not improve in the first half of this year. For downstream chip manufacturers, how much production capacity they can obtain from wafer fabs will directly affect the company's performance.

"Many wafer fabs have increased their prices this year and their production capacity is tight. Especially this year, gallium nitride chargers are on the market in large quantities. How is the supply of gallium nitride power chips?" Li Wenhui, Sales Director of Navitas Semiconductor, responded to reporters, "The GaNFast gallium nitride chip launched by Navitas uses dedicated lines. Navitas is the largest customer on TSMC's GaN production line. We have always had long-term supply cooperation, and the delivery time remains in the same range as last year. Xiaomi and OPPO are both supplying normally, and consumers can buy chargers using nanoscale gallium nitride power chips through regular channels."

Industry experts pointed out that gallium nitride fast charging products mainly include two core components, one is a power management IC chip, and the other is a power discrete device. In the disassembly diagram, we see that the charger consists of four main parts: gallium nitride power device, protocol chip and main control chip, synchronous rectifier chip, as well as circuits and capacitors. Li Wenhui, Sales Director of Navitas Semiconductor, pointed out that only the cooperation of gallium nitride power chips, protocol chip manufacturers, synchronous rectification chip manufacturers and main controller manufacturers can promote the rapid growth of the entire GaN charger market. For example, a 2A2C 65W gallium nitride charger is equipped with 1-2 power ICs + main control chips (ON Semiconductor/Xinyuan) + four Cypress/Zhirong protocol chips. Therefore, the coordinated development of the entire industry chain can ensure the supply and virtuous cycle of the gallium nitride charger market.

To achieve rapid development of gallium nitride chips in the future, ensuring production capacity is an important prerequisite. Zhou Yi, sales director of Innosec, believes that only by adopting the IDM model to integrate chip design and manufacturing and achieve full industry chain control can Chinese chip companies solve real production capacity problems.

In 2018, the production capacity of Innosec's Zhuhai 8-inch wafer fab reached 4,000 wafers per month. Starting from 2018, Innosec has planned to lay out a larger-scale wafer factory. On September 19, 2020, Innosec's third-generation semiconductor base in Suzhou held an equipment move-in ceremony. It is expected to achieve a monthly production of 65,000 8-inch silicon-based gallium nitride wafers after full production. The company's product line covers a full range of gallium nitride chips from 30V to 650V. The products will provide core electronic components for the independent innovation and development of strategic emerging industries such as 5G mobile communications, data centers, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, and mobile phone fast charging.

The rapid development of Innosec has also led to the opening up of the chain of domestic gallium nitride chips and peripheral chips. In the disassembly of an Innosec 20W GaN charger, we found that the protocol chip comes from Huinengtai and the control chip comes from Nanxin Semiconductor. With the continuous entry of domestic manufacturers, the domestic gallium nitride industry chain has gradually formed, and large-scale supply can be achieved while ensuring quality. Zhou has revealed that more than 40 of Innosec's partners have mass-produced gallium nitride chargers. In the next two years, low-voltage gallium nitride products will gradually increase in volume. In addition to chargers, gallium nitride chip products have also expanded their applications in the industrial field, artificial intelligence data centers and lidar fields.

At present, domestic GaN is basically low-power, mainly for two reasons: on the one hand, the GaN manufacturing process threshold is very high, and the technology is not yet very mature; on the other hand, the power management IC also needs to be redesigned, and previous solutions cannot be copied. There are many domestic start-up companies involved, but who can really break through currently remains to be seen by the market. GaN uses heteroepitaxial materials, which poses great challenges in design and manufacturing processes. There are very limited mature mass-produced GaN production lines around the world.

The cost of GaN chargers is twice that of traditional chargers, but it is declining at a rate of 20%-30% per year. I believe that as more mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi announce standard gallium nitride chargers, the market will usher in new development opportunities. Manufacturers with design strength, technical strength and GaN production capacity will be able to occupy a favorable position in this fiercely competitive market.

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