Hot Application Drives IC Growth in 2013
In 2012 Global economic situation continued presenting downturn; due to such reasons as global consumption ability declines, semiconductor industry development suffered serious blow, but high-end semiconductor market still maintained the original development momentum. With the coming of 2013, there will show the following trends for worldwide semiconductor market.
The mainstream applications will continue growth.
The driving force of market growth on one hand comes from technology and product innovation, on the other hand from the environmental needs as well as the implementation of industry standards and regulations.
Xie Bing, TI president for China operations, the generally manager of Greater China as well as the vice president for Asia said, although the capacity growth in the overall semiconductor market is not optimistic, some mainstream applications certainly still will continue to grow, such as automotive electronics, industrial control, new energy application and other fields.
“Looking ahead to 2013, the main driving force for market growth on one hand lies in technology and product innovation; on the other hand in the environmental needs as well as the implementation of industry standard and regulations.” The president and Managing Director in Infineon Technologies (China) Co., Ltd, Lai Qunxin also pointed out, “ the worth-expected product and technology applications include: first, 32-bit multi-core vehicle microprocessor with faster execution speed; second, the implementation of ISO26262 system in automotive industry, which can make the vehicle safer; third, the more widely IGBT application; fourth, finer semiconductor line width and larger-diameter wafer process and technology, which will lower the cost of single IC product.”
With the continuous emergence of challengeable new applications, the Executive Director, President and CEO of NXP Semiconductors, Rick Clemmer noted, we expected energy efficiency, and connected mobile devices as well as security and health care are the industry’s growth driver. He also stressed, there is huge potential in Chinese energy-saving market, one focus of China’s “Twelfth-Five” plan is the emphasis of energy-saving, which will have a significant impact on energy efficiency, with the install of cover-such-a-large-population smart grid.
Mobile Internet Continues Evolving
The continuous increase of demand for smaller and thinner mobile devices, as well the explosive growth of smart connected devices and data, video content cause the rapid enhance of mobile data transmission need, the surge of global mobile data traffic also brings challenge and opportunity to wireless infrastructure. “Integration as well as integrated development has become trends, product level focuses more on high accuracy and low power consumption, especially sensors used in consumer electronic products pay more attention power consumption. “ Wang Yu, the marketing director of Fujitsu Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
LTE will be the key technology of the smart phone market in 2013. LTE technology supported smartphone and other networked devices will continues rapid growth, promoting the development and evolution of the current mobile communication applications, and generating new applications. President of STMicroelectronics Ericsson in China, Zhang Daijun thought, VoLTE can bring rich calling experience as well as high-definition audio effects, while maintaining very low power consumption, so VoLTE in 2013 will be a trend. In addition, if smartphone do does not use carrier aggregation technology, it will be very difficult to make the operators support LTE technology which can achieve 100Mbps to 100Mbps rate. “LTE carrier aggregation will be launched in 2013; and we expect 2014 will see significant growth,” he pointed out.
High-frequency multi-core CPU, the multi-mode Modem which can achieve connection everywhere, larger and higher-resolution 3D image display will still be the focus of mobile terminal devices, and be used in the next-generation mobile terminal equipment. Besides, the next-generation terminal should also include better battery life.
Model innovation is a new topic for the semiconductor industry. The development mode in the field of semiconductor in 2013 (whether sales boosts development or technology guides market) will vary on the basis of situation. “For instance, in the consumer electronics area, due to the market size and product price factors, the best combination of cost, performance, and power consumption is very important; meanwhile the production capacity of foundry is also very important.” Wang Yu noted, “Of course, innovation will be the major driving force; in addition, the system design is also the innovative point promoting the development of semiconductor industry.”
Six Market Will See Bright Development
Looking ahead of 2013, the uncertainty in Chinese traditional industry market may continue, as a result, 2013 is really a full-of-challenges year; but China’s market scale as well as development potential still creates huge opportunity for electronics industry. If semiconductor manufacturers can find suitable solutions, preventing from weakness with market advantage, these challenges also can turn to development opportunity.
The following markets are due for concerns: first, mobile internet. The opening application platforms caused by emerging network services will provide many third-party developers with innovative stage. Second, could computing: With the popularity of broadband access and the development of portable mobile terminal, the electronic information industry is moving from the PC era into the era of mobile Internet. Cloud computing services will be one of the most important business models for future information industry services. Third, new energy: LED lighting, electric vehicles, and new-generation communication as well as other emerging industries will form new economic growth points, promoting a new round of a new industrial revolution. Fourth, personalized consumer products: As people increasingly diverse the demand for electronic products, numerous products have emerged to adapt to the new situation of consumption personalization. Fifth, electronic payment: by 2015, all banks will only issue smart card-based bank card. Meanwhile, operator-based mobile payment also has achieved initial formation. These payment applications propose new requirements for the chip capacity, contactless or dual-interface technology, trade execution speed and security. Six, the automotive electronics market is still full of opportunities. Sensor will occupy more and more shares. Emissions regulations become more stringent, motorcycles continue to upgrade to EFI systems from the carburetor; China pay more attention to the safety of motor vehicles, boosting increasing the loading rate of electronic systems; regulations become the main driving force for technological progress. Of automotive applications, mainstream application has converted to multi-core and 32-bit MCU.
High-performance Mixed-signal Technology Increase Application
A series of innovations are needed in energy-saving appliances, security equipment certification, mobile communications and automotive mobile Internet for improve energy efficiency.
NXP in IC industry is committed to promote the application and development of high-performance mixed-signal technology, providing a range of leading products and technologies in enhancing the energy efficiency of energy-saving appliances, security equipment certification, mobile communications and automotive mobile Internet.
NXP are actively boosting the progress of improving energy efficiency, such as in lighting solutions and enhancing the energy efficiency of automotive electronic. It also contributes to the development of intelligent and networked home appliances, for instance, smart washing machine can automatically detect the most economical washing way, providing more power-saving results.
In addition, the recognition technology of NXP has entered the daily life of most consumers. Meanwhile NFC technology enables consumers around the world of more simple transactions, exchanging digital content; a key or a touch of the screen can be connected to the electronic device. From games, membership cards or coupons, consumers can immediately benefit from the added value brought by the NFC.
“Connected car” is another exciting area of innovation. Vehicle network technology will have a huge impact on the driving comfort, convenience and sensory experience of drivers and passengers.
Finally, the concept of smart home will integrate these technologies into a unite goal, namely all electronic equipment and even a light bulb has its own IP address, enabling them to be controlled remotely through smart phones, tablet PCs. There will present a variety of possibilities from using NFC electronic locks to control the house, to smart alliance which can automatically monitor the energy consumption.
The phone Modem values the ability and power consumption of the high-speed interface
The usage scenarios of wireless Modem technology experienced great change in the past few years, from smartphone gradually popularizing to various equipments with needs of network connectivity, including Tablet PC, TV and automotive, which raise more innovative requirements for high-speed interface capacity and product size, power consumption of Modem solutions.
With the access technology of mobile phone developing into 4G as well as the upcoming 4G/LTE multimode, the coexistence of multiple access technologies has greatly increased difficulty of achieving Modem. On one hand, there is many hidden problems in traditional achievement way whether in stability or in power consumption. On the other hand, the process technology of the chip will gain more traction from mobile platform suppliers. The more advanced the process is, the more significant the improvement of chip’s overall performance is.
ST-Ericsson will continue to self or through-cooperation develop competitive system solutions, where the focus is continuing to deliver highly integrated ModAp platform for major customers, and testing the advanced LTE Modem. In addition, ST-Ericsson will begin to adopt FD-SOI, a groundbreaking technology to mobile market, in NovaThor ModAp platform.
Communication, White Goods, Automotive Electronics Show Development Potential
In 2013, due to the market environment and other factors, the application market of high-end products will continue to be our focus. With the development of 4G related industries in China, communications and related business will be a large market. In addition, based on factors such as government guidance, the MCU and product solution of white goods are still the focus of development. Automotive electronics, as a branch of the new energy, also has a strong development potential. Furthermore, the GaN power devices of Fujitsu Semiconductor will also start mass production in the second half of 2013, which will pave the way for the use of GaN power devices in high-voltage, high-current applications.
Based on market demand, Fujitsu Semiconductor will increase investment in the research and development of products, for instance, continuing developing new products in LED lighting and new-energy vehicles.
In the field of consumer electronics and industrial control, with the rapid growth of demand for high-performance and low power-consumption controller, Fujitsu Semiconductor planned to provide new ARM Cortex-M4 core based 32-bit MCU belonging to FM4 series, and Cortex-M0 +kernel based FM0 + series samples, and will achieve production of these products later of this year. Along with current FM3 family of microcontrollers, so the product group using Cortex-M4, M3 and M0 + processor core will have more than 700 different products; these architectures-consistent, flexible products will be able to meet the needs of users more widely.
Business mode needs continuous innovation.
TI in 2013 will continue to focus on business of analog and embedded processing. On one hand, it will continues investment in traditional industry, communications, consumer electronics, medical electronics and other industries; on the other hand, China’s “12th Five-Year Plan” has identified seven strategic emerging industries, for which, DSP, MCU and Analog Devices have broad application prospects.
Whether technology or products, the most important is that TI always adheres to customer demand-oriented innovation, providing customers with a complete solution and helping them develop a variety of terminal applications to meet the demand of consumers. As such, TI established the Kilby Laboratory, Solar Energy Laboratory, LED laboratory as well as motor laboratory to provide world-class solutions to customers, offsetting the challenges from the market.
In addition to the continuous efforts and innovation in technique, TI also concerned about the operating modes as well as the continuous innovation of business model. During 80 years, TI had many transformations. History has proven that if wanting to continue innovating in market, and offering more value to customers, enterprise should achieve the continuous innovation in business mode.