According to ICinsights reports, analog ICs are still key components in almost all digital-centric systems today. Consumer, computing, communications, automotive, and industrial/medical systems rely on analog devices to manage power consumption and help extend the battery life of portable devices.

IC Insights ranked the leading analog IC suppliers in 2020 in the latest report (pictured below). The total analog IC sales of these 10 companies totaled US$35.4 billion, accounting for 62% of the total US$57 billion in the analog IC market last year, the same as the share in 2019.

With analog sales of 10.9 billion U.S. dollars and a 19% market share, Texas Instruments will continue to firmly occupy the leading supplier of analog equipment in 2020. TI’s analog sales increased by approximately US$650 million, or 6%, compared to 2019. TI’s analog revenue in 2020 accounted for 80% of its IC sales of $13.6 billion and 75% of its total semiconductor revenue of $14.5 billion.

Statistics show that by 2020, approximately half of TI‘s analog devices will be manufactured on 300mm wafers. The company has previously stated that manufacturing analog ICs on 300mm wafers reduces the cost of unpackaged parts (at the chip level) by 40% compared to production using 200mm wafers. According to TI, the cost of fully packaged and tested ICs manufactured on 300mm wafers is about 20% lower than that of ICs manufactured on 200mm wafers.

With such significant cost savings, TI announced plans to build a 300mm fab in Richardson, Texas to support future analog growth. The new plant will be located next to its existing 300mm RFAB plant. TI executives hinted last year that the fab may start production in 2022.

The second-ranked Analog Devices Company (ADI)‘s analog IC sales in 2020 fell by 1% to 5.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 9% of the market share. ADI stated that its analog equipment, including many of the equipment it acquired through the 2017 acquisition of Linear Technology, has solved opportunities "from sensors to clouds, DC to 100 GHz and above, and nanowatts to kilowatts." ADI has more than 125,000 customers worldwide. Its 2020 sales of end-use applications are industrial (53%), communications (21%), automotive (14%) and consumers (11%).

Skyworks Solutions jumped to third place in the 2020 ranking. Skyworks focuses on front-end modules and power amplifiers for mobile phones and smartphones, highly integrated SiP and SoC devices for wireless infrastructure, power management chips, precision analog components, WiFi connection modules and ICs, as well as for ZigBee and Bluetooth applications Smart energy IC.

Skyworks pointed out that its extraordinary growth in 2020 is mainly due to the increase in overall demand for wireless connectivity products and the beginning of the technology upgrade cycle including 5G and Wi-Fi 6 solutions. In addition, the average content per device of these next-generation solutions has increased. The company stated that its chips are an important part of 5G smartphones launched by Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and other first-tier players.

The three major European IC suppliers-Infineon, STMicroelectronics and NXP-are all selected as the top 10 analog suppliers in 2020. Together, they accounted for 17% of the global market share, a decrease of one percentage point from 2019. Infineon ranked the highest European analog supplier, with sales increasing 2% to US$3.8 billion. Infineon continues to expand its influence in automotive (41% of sales in 2020) and power/sensor systems (31% of sales in 2020). Industrial power control (16%) and connection security (11%) complete its other major end-use applications.

ST ranked fifth, with analog sales falling 1% to US$3.3 billion (6% market share), and NXP ranked sixth with sales of US$2.5 billion (4% market share). ST’s simulation focuses on motion control (motor driver ICs and high-voltage driver ICs), automation (smart power switches), and energy management (power line communication ICs) applications. One of NXP’s key growth areas is automobiles, and its analog sales are an important part of emerging systems such as lidar, vehicle networks, and 5G.

It should be noted that IC Insights’s highest ranking of analog sales is based on the definition established by WSTS, that is, “if at least 50% of the total chip area of ​​integrated circuits in a device is classified as an analog device, the device is occupied by analog circuits.” For example, Some analog companies embed less than 50% of their analog circuits into their various logic chips. IC Insights classifies these devices as logic or other types of components for specific applications according to WSTS definitions.