FOR JIM WITHAM, chief executive of Canada-based GaN Systems, one of the biggest success stories of 2021 centred on electric vehicles. As the pandemic gathered momentum and global car sales plummeted, the electric vehicle market proved to be remarkably resilient. Policy support relating to emissions cuts remained strong while battery costs fell. And as Witham puts it: "Eighteen months ago, many were dabbling in electric vehicles but now the OEMs are saying, '100 percent of my cars are going to be electric by this year'. The world was really gone for electric vehicles." This spells good news for manufacturers of both GaN and SiC devices, as industry developments indicate. For example, in late 2020, Cree, now Wolfspeed, stepped out of the LED light and is now churning out SiC components and systems for electric vehicles, as well as GaN RF products for defense and communications applications. At the time, Chief executive, Gregg Lowe, told Compound Semiconductor. 'I have to say, this is a great time to be a silicon carbide company'. Since this time, Wolfspeed and other players - including SananIC, Rohm, Ⅱ-Ⅵ and Infineon - have been signing deals with auto-OEMs and investing millions to billions of dollars in SiC capacity to snare their share of this burgeoning market.
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