Nov 10, 2009 Semiconductor devices used in industrial drives could have benefited from last year's revenue growth for the market. High-powered semiconductors for industrial applications could have seen demand for their manufacture increase last year, after a new report has stated that revenue growth for industrial drives was significant.

The study by IMS Research found that market revenues increased by 12.6 per cent over 2007 levels, with direct current, alternating current, servo, stepper and medium-voltage drives all benefitting from improved sales.

Advanced power semiconductor technology can reduce the number of components needed in medium-voltage drives, which could result in decreased downtime and increased savings and reliability.

Medium-voltage drives experienced more than 20 per cent revenue growth in 2008 when compared to the previous year. The study stated a contributing factor was the rise in major industries using the drives, including mining, oil and gas.

"Total drive revenues for Europe, Middle East and Africa were approximately $7.2 billion (£4.1 billion) in 2008, accounting for more than 43 per cent of the worldwide market," IMS Research noted.

Semiconductor converters are used by medium-voltage drives to switch alternating to direct current in electric motors.

    Email this article to a friend   Connotea       Cite-U-Like        Del.icio.us        Digg       Facebook

  Google       Live Spaces       MySpace       Newsvine       Reddit    

  Stumbleupon       Technorati       Twitter       Yahoo! My Web