Market and Technology Trends

Status of the Power IC: Technology, Industry and Trends 2021

By Yole Intelligence — Dec 2021

Power IC industrial players boost capacity, growing the market to $25.6B by 2026.

What's new:

Power IC market update
The impact of COVID-19, supply chain business models, and chip shortages on the market
Power IC wafer market forecast by wafer size and substrate from 2020 to 2026
Major power IC supplier profiles
Focus on enlarging manufacturing capacity for 200 and 300mm wafers
Focus on China’s growing competence in power IC device manufacturing and the country’s efforts toward made-in-China power electronics
Trends toward device and system integration

WHAT IS DRIVING THE $25.6B POWER IC MARKET?

The total power integrated circuit (IC) market is expected to be worth more than $25B by 2026, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.0% during the forecasted period. This is because power IC devices are used in almost all electric and electronic systems, with different requirements for each application.

The power IC market for mobile and consumer devices is the largest one, worth about $11B in 2020. It is mainly driven by high-volume demand from smartphones, although the growth of this market will flatten in the forecasted period. Multichannel Power Management Integrated Circuits (PMICs) dominate the mobile and consumer product markets, where they power several loads with different rail voltages. Players such as Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, and Samsung S.LSI are very strong in this market.

The automotive segment is the most promising for the power IC market in terms of forecasted volumes. This is driven by electrification and autonomous driving, leading to a 9% CAGR2020-2026 for this segment. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are expected to represent almost 30% of the market by 2026 and Battery Management Integrated Circuits (BMICs) are needed to manage the power flow through the EV battery. Yole also estimates that 80% of all passenger and light commercial vehicles will be equipped at least with a level 1 Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) by 2026. Power IC players such as Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and STMicroelectronics are very aggressive in this market.

As shown in the report, Power ICs have good opportunities in other segments such as industrial, telecom and medical applications.

MANUFACTURING CAPABILITY AND SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANISATION

Due to COVID-19 and chip shortages, semiconductor players are increasing manufacturing capacity to secure their supply chain and to reduce manufacturing costs to remain competitive. The main Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) and foundries, such as Infineon or Texas Instruments, are investing in 300mm wafer fabs. There are three main business models in the power IC landscape:
IDM, foundry and fabless. IDMs, such as Texas Instruments and Analog Devices manufacture their power IC devices internally. However, these players outsource some of their products to foundries. Foundries are normally specialized in making standard products. Companies such as TSMC, Tower Semiconductor, SMC, and Samsung Electronics operate with this business model. Finally, fabless companies do not possess their own manufacturing fabs. Among them Qualcomm is the leader in multichannel PMIC market.

The Chinese power IC market is by far the biggest. However, local Chinese power IC players’ market share in their own country was only 12% in 2020. The Chinese power IC market is led by international players such as Texas Instruments and Analog Devices, but local players are progressively gaining market share. Chinese system level players are increasingly technologically accepted and are looking for local and strong supply chains, pushed by the COVID-19 crisis’ supply chain disruption and followed by semiconductor shortages. European Union and the USA administrations are also pushing for local semiconductor manufacturing to reduce their dependency on Asian manufacturers.

This report covers the main companies’ investments in new fabs and the diversification of product portfolios, the key mergers and acquisitions and the detailed market shares.

WHAT ARE THE KEY TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS IN THE POWER IC MARKET?

When we ask power management manufacturers about technology trends for power ICs, the first answer is usually “not much is happening, this is a highly cost driven market”. But of course, this depends on the application and power IC product type. There are some end systems with space constraints, like consumer products and IoT that push for device or system integration. Device integration is driven by the need to integrate different functions in the same chip. One example is the memory integration with the power IC, which has reduced lithography nodes to 90nm feature sizes. However, companies like Samsung and TSMC are looking to decrease this further, to 65nm. Of course, the node choice is not fixed and depends on the size of the memory part versus the power IC part of the chip. Another example is the increasing development of more specific power ICs. For example, multichannel PMICs integrate several independent functions in the same chip, to satisfy the demand from automotive, computing, and automated systems. Power IC players also consider system integration in consumer applications such as smartphones, tablets, or wireless earbuds. Players like Analog Devices are pushing for integrated passives in the system, leading to system in package components.

Key features of the report:

Forecast for power semiconductor devices by package type from 2020 to 2026
Power IC wafer market forecast by wafer size and substrate from 2020 to 2026
Update of power IC market forecast by application, from 2020 to 2026
Update of power IC market forecast by power IC type, from 2020 to 2026
COVID-19 impact and chip shortages
Major power IC supplier profiles
Focus on enlarging manufacturing capacity for 200 and 300mm wafers
Market trends for each power IC application
Main power IC companies’ revenues in 2020
Power electronics player rankings and landscape analysis for 2020
Global power IC industry overview, with a focus on China
Analysis of the latest M&A activity
Overview of technology status and trends for power ICs

Objectives of the report:

Provide an overview of the entire power IC market
Analyze the main drivers for power IC market by application
Provide market metrics and forecasts for power IC devices
Provide the overview of the power IC supply chain, with the main players and their market shares with a focus on the major players, with an additional focus on the Chinese power IC market
Analyze how business models and supply-chains evolve
Present main technological trends of power IC market
Provide the main development axes for power IC market

Do you have an account?

Search