Energy saving becomes the main theme of the market
With the rising prices of oil and semiconductor raw materials, the semiconductor industry seems to have felt the chill of the global energy crisis in advance. Therefore, various products have put forward higher requirements for energy saving, which brings both opportunities and challenges to power management chips.
Guo Yuliang, president and managing director of Asia Pacific of Fairchild Semiconductor, said that in 2006, the hot spots of global power management chips revolved around the system and IC design that promoted high-efficiency solutions. This is the result of the global implementation of power efficiency specifications (such as Energy Star and China Energy Conservation Plan) and the energy consumption spikes that have appeared in recent years.
Zheng Zhaoxiong, global sales and marketing director of automotive and power management products of ON Semiconductor, told reporters that the development trend of the global power management chip market in 2006 showed the following two characteristics: First, with the increase of environmental awareness, low-energy design has attracted more and more attention from manufacturers, consumers and governments, and high-efficiency power design is becoming one of the key technologies affecting electronic system design; second, the requirements of faster power design cycle, low standby power consumption, high energy efficiency and reduced footprint are changing the traditional power design method, and innovation in power management design is imperative, especially in certain fields, such as computing applications, where computers combine computing, portable entertainment and other functions, and the demand for power products continues to increase.

Ren Tao, senior product marketing manager of semiconductor power management and interface in multiple markets of NXP Semiconductors Asia Pacific Market and Sales, said that the global power management chip market in 2006 continued to develop towards high-efficiency, energy-saving, low standby power consumption and environmentally friendly products.

2007 is worth looking forward to

Predicting the future is always a topic that people never get tired of, and the future also represents hope. Although many analysts believe that the growth rate of the power management chip market in 2007 will be slower than that in 2006, the world's mainstream power management manufacturers do not seem to agree with this.
Steve SANGHI, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Microchip, predicts that the global power management chip market will show the following trends in 2007: small size, highly integrated, low power consumption, high performance and high flexibility products will become mainstream; lithium ion and lithium polymer will be the fastest growing rechargeable battery chemical materials; more than 70% of batteries will be positioned in single-cell and dual-cell applications; the energy density of power devices will increase by 10% each year; more and more applications use lithium batteries (such as power tools and toys), and it is expected that by 2010, 90% of rechargeable batteries will use lithium materials.
Guo Yuliang is confident about the growth of the power management chip market in 2007. He said: "2007 will continue to be a year of rapid growth for power management, with a growth rate higher than the overall analog IC market. We believe that the computing market will rebound in 2007, so there will be demand for chips that drive storage capabilities. We expect the notebook computer market to recover, thereby increasing the demand for ultra-high efficiency products. In the consumer market, LCDTV will continue to move towards larger screens and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 300%, driving demand for 40V-80V products. Network communications, such as mobile phones and cordless phones, will have strong growth, requiring semiconductor suppliers to launch power management chips to meet all these requirements." Ren Tao is also optimistic about the development of the power management market in 2007. He said: "The power management chip market will continue to rise in 2007, and its share in the analog IC and the total semiconductor market will continue to expand. We are most optimistic about the LCD TV and next-generation PC80+ power supply market, especially the large-size LCD backlight driver IC will develop in the direction of high voltage. The traditional LCD driver has always been a topology structure that steps down the AC-DC and then boosts the drive. This solution has the disadvantages of low efficiency, large size, and excessive burden on the AC-DC. NXP has been continuously promoting high-voltage LCD solutions, directly boosting the AC-PFC to the voltage required by the LCD backlight, which greatly reduces the load on the system DC power supply, greatly reduces the size, greatly reduces the heat generation, and greatly improves the efficiency, which is roughly estimated to be more than 10%. This is extremely consistent with the high efficiency and environmental protection concept that NXP has always advocated."

Many highlights in the Chinese market

According to data provided by CCID Consulting, the Chinese power IC market maintained its usual high growth rate in 2006, with market sales reaching 27.21 billion yuan and a compound growth rate of 30.1% from 2002 to 2006. CCID Consulting believes that there are several obvious growth points in China's power IC market in the next few years, including digital TV, 3G products and portable devices. From the perspective of application environment, the 2008 Olympic Games, energy-saving needs and the Chinese government's encouraging policies for the chip industry will continue to stimulate the development of the power IC market.
Guo Yuliang is particularly optimistic about China's digital TV, especially the display screen market. He believes that the Beijing Olympic Games is a major boost to the growth of China's power management chips. The various communication application products required by the Olympic Games will give rise to new market opportunities, including the use of specific communication application technologies, such as high-definition television broadcasting (this will be the world's first Olympic Games using high-definition broadcasting), mobile digital media broadcasting, 2.5G and 3G mobile phones, cable TV and Internet TV. All related terminal products, such as liquid crystal television (LCDTV), plasma flat-panel television (PDP), rear projection television (PTV), outdoor television (ODTV), mobile TV, PDA phones and set-top boxes (STB) are expected to vigorously promote the rapid growth of the electronics industry in the next few years. Fairchild Semiconductor has and will continue to develop backlight products and signal conditioning product suites to meet the needs of this market.
Zheng Zhaoxiong is more optimistic about the application of 3G in China. He said: "In the future, 3G applications will bring new growth points for China's network communication integrated circuits. The market demand for downstream 3G equipment will inevitably drive the development of the upstream chip market. In addition, applications in IPTV and digital high-definition television will also promote the rapid development of China's power management chip market to a certain extent. Take mobile phones as an example. As the functions of mobile phone products become more and more complex, the power efficiency is required to increase from the general 65% to 85% to 90%. ON Semiconductor has made full preparations to improve the performance of current products and make them play a high power efficiency." Low-cost power management products have become an urgent need for Chinese customers. Wang Jian, general manager of TI China East China, said: "Chinese consumer products do not occupy a leading position in the world, and they are still in a follower position in technology. This also makes Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers extremely sensitive to product costs. Chinese companies have the advantage of low-cost labor and require low costs within an acceptable performance range. However, Chinese companies with relatively advanced technology have high requirements for product performance, because the application environment of Chinese products is diverse, and it is necessary to continuously strengthen exchanges with Chinese customers and take into account their application characteristics." NXP also feels the same about the demand for low costs. After expressing the view that 3G and digital TV will become the undisputed hot spots in China's power management chip market in the near future, Ren Tao said: "My deep feeling is low cost. The pressure of optimizing costs makes it particularly important for us to help customers gain cost advantages."