Who would have thought 30 years ago that Asia would become an economic powerhouse nurturing the rise of the Asian Tigers, and then China and India? Could anyone have predicted the near 10 percent GDP growth rate for China? Or that India would steadily post about 8 percent annual GDP growth?

Asia's spectacular growth comes with a price tag, though. The region's energy consumption increased 230 percent during the same period, led by China and India. Asia already accounts for about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency expects that much of the anticipated $6 trillion investment Asia needs—read China and India—by 2030 will be in coal-fired power plants. And by that year, Asia will contribute 40 percent of the total emissions.

Because Asia's spectacular growth has not translated to spectacular poverty alleviation (more than half of the Asian population lives on less than $2 per day), the developing economies desperately need to continue growing. But does prosperity mean we have to make the planet uninhabitable? Countries continue to wrangle over who should reign in the air pollution with environment-friendly policy amid growing realization that more often than not, what is produced locally is consumed globally.

Thus, the need to increase energy efficiency has never been greater. And that spells opportunities for many businesses including those in the electronics industry.

For instance, zero-power or bi-stable displays are ready for prime time after years of research. Shipments of such displays including LCDs, electrophoretic and electrochromic displays are expected to increase by a factor of about 12 from 2007 to 2012, reaching 350 million units, according to iSuppli Corp. The research firm expects heated competition between bi-stable displays and new low-power LCDs for the electronic-shelf-label, point-of-sale and mobile phone markets. The market for low-power forms of existing LCD and OLED displays is also set to grow rapidly—from $6 billion in 2007 to $24 billion in sales by 2012 (CAGR of 27 percent).

New semiconductor products are on the market to help reduce power consumption, increase energy utilization from solar cells in portable applications or increase efficiencies with better motor control in industrial applications. The global power-management chip market is also expected to grow significantly partly because of the demand for longer battery life. iSuppli predicts the worldwide revenue from shipments of power-management ICs including voltage regulators, power-management ASICs and ASSPs, rectifiers, thyristors and power transistors to reach $39.9 billion in 2011, a 59.6 percent increase from $24.98 billion in 2006.

In this issue's Spotlight section, Tom Kapucija, marketing director at Teridian Semiconductor Corp., says that nearly half of the motors in industrial applications run at less than 40 percent of the full load thereby wasting significant energy. You can increase efficiency by transitioning to new-generation motors and controllers. And Aengus Murray, director of iMOTION Marketing at International Rectifier Corp., discusses sensorless, field-oriented control of motors in home appliances.

We hope the articles in this issue provide you with enough information to implement profitable devices that are healthier for the planet. Visit http://www.eetasia.com/CAT_765245_power-design.HTM for more information on efficient power design.

Email the Editor

Back to top