The GaN (gallium nitride) fast charger market is expected to grow rapidly, exceeding $100 million in 2022.

TrendForce recently projected that GaN power device sales in 2021 would reach $61 million, a 90.6% increase from the previous year.

TrendForce reported that market demand for GaN power devices continues to grow as smartphone brands, including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, have been continuously releasing fast chargers since 2018.

In the past, fast chargers were generally based on Si (silicon) chips, but as the wattage increased, the weight and physical size also increased, resulting in low portability and a tendency to overheat during rapid charging.

In addition, as battery capacity expanded to over 4,000mAh, the charging efficiency of existing Si chargers began to decrease.

Consequently, GaN chargers are expected to completely change the flow of existing fast chargers.

GaN semiconductors have features such as high power conversion efficiency, high power density and compact size, fast switching speed, and cost reduction.
On the other hand, it is true that the manufacturing cost of GaN chargers is still 80–120% higher than that of Si chargers. Furthermore, no company offers them as bundles yet, and they are sold separately.

Navitas, currently the largest supplier of GaN charger chips, has a customer base consisting of major brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Lenovo, Asus-Adol, and Dell.

Navitas's market share in GaN charger chips exceeded 50% as of last year.

Navitas' chips are currently being manufactured on 6-inch wafers using TSMC's GaN on Si technology, and TSMC plans to increase its GaN production capacity by outsourcing the epitaxial process to Unikorn, a subsidiary of Ennostar.