Product Attributes

How did the world’s top 10 analog chip leaders come to be?

Throughout history, analog chip leaders have grown from huge markets. China, which currently has the largest semiconductor market and the highest growth rate, is expected to replicate the conditions that led to ADENO’s rapid growth.

The source of all data is the analog signal, and analog chips are integrated analog circuits for processing analog signals. Analog signals are signals that are continuous in time and amplitude, while digital signals are signals that are discontinuous in time and amplitude. After the external signal has been converted by the sensor into an electrical signal, it is an analog signal which is further amplified and filtered in a system consisting of an analog chip. The processed analog signal can either be output to a digital system for processing via a data converter or directly to an actuator.

Common digital-to-analog hybrid systems include mobile phones, personal computers, digital cameras, microphones, and speakers, etc. in the consumer sector, temperature detectors, electrocardiographs, aircraft systems in the industrial sector, reversing displays in the automotive sector, etc. Analog chips are ubiquitous.

Signals are transmitted in the form of electricity and are divided into two types of analog signals, weak and strong, depending on the strength of the current/voltage. Signal chain products are responsible for processing the weak power. Power management products are mainly responsible for the processing of strong power, but also weak power.

The global analog chip market space is nearly US$60 billion. The global market for integrated circuits is USD 340.2 billion, with analog circuits accounting for 15%. Of the analog circuits, the signal chain market is US$ 14.3 billion, and the power management market is US$ 21.6 billion. Starting with the first integrated op-amp that appeared in 1968, by 2018, analog chips had become a global industry of nearly US$60 billion.

Currently, the top 10 analog chip companies hold more than half of the market share. In 2018, the top 10 analog chip companies were Texas Instruments (TI), Adenor (ADI), Infineon, Skyworks, ST Microelectronics, NXP, Maxim, On Semiconductor, and On Semiconductor. Maxim, On Semi, Microchip, and Renesas.

Among them, Texas Instruments specializes in power management and is the leader in this field; ADI started with operational amplifiers and is the leader in data converters, with a high market share in op-amps and power management. Infineon was spun off from the Siemens Group and is an independently listed semiconductor company. The current top-ranked analog chip companies, which were founded in the early 1960s and the golden 1990s when integrated circuits were born, grew up together with the integrated circuit industry, including the current leader Texas Instruments (1930), the former leader National Semiconductor (1959), and the current second place Adenor (1965), relying on the original accumulation of analog technology (Know-how) to form Core competencies.

The leader is far ahead in the various segments of the analog chip market

Among the analog ICs, power management is the largest market with a size of about US$21.6 billion or 42%; the signal chain market is US$14.3 billion (28%) and the RF and other products market is about US$15.8 billion or 30%. In the amplifier segment, Texas Instruments holds almost a third of the market (29%), with ADENO second (18%). In the data converter segment, ADENO is the absolute leader, currently holding half of the data converter market (48%) and has a long-term lead over its competitors. In the power management segment, the leader, Texas Instruments, holds over a quarter of the market (21%), with Qualcomm (15%), ADENO (13%), Mexico (12%), and Infineon (10%) having similar shares.