The integrated circuit power management chip industry can be divided into three major links: IC design, IC manufacturing, and IC testing and packaging. The integrated circuit power management IC industry mainly has the following characteristics: many manufacturing processes, many types of products, rapid technological upgrading, and high investment risk.

IC design can be divided into several steps: specification formulation--logic design--circuit layout--post-layout simulation--mask fabrication. Specification formulation: The engineers of the brand factory or the white-brand factory contact the IC design engineers and put forward requirements; logic design: IC design engineers complete the logic design diagram; circuit layout: convert the logic design diagram into a circuit diagram; post-layout simulation: through software testing, See if it meets the specification requirements; Mask production: The circuit is made into a piece of mask, and the completed mask is sent to the IC manufacturing company.

The IC manufacturing process is more complex, and the process is similar to the traditional photo manufacturing process. The main steps include: thin film - lithography - development - etching - photoresist removal. Film preparation: grow several layers of films with different materials and thicknesses on the surface of the wafer; photolithography: copy the pattern on the mask to the silicon wafer. The cost of photolithography is about 1/3 of the entire silicon wafer manufacturing process, and the time consuming accounts for about 40-60% of the entire silicon wafer process.

The packaging process is roughly as follows: cutting - pasting - cutting and welding - molding. Cutting: Cut the wafer produced by the IC manufacturing company into a rectangular IC; Paste: Paste the IC on the PCB; Soldering: Solder the pins of the IC to the PCB to make it compatible with the PCB; Molding: Put the The pins are sealed.

There are three main factors that affect the price of power management chips:

1. The packaging of the power management chip itself will also affect the cost. For example, the commonly used DIP and PLCC have a total of 32 pins around them, which are small in size and high in performance. The pin pitch of PQFP is very small in number above 100, and it is tried in large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits. SOP small outline package.

2. The selection of the power management chip is mostly related to the scheme, because it is responsible for the transformation, distribution and detection of the power of the entire system. It is based on your different functional requirements, different working environments, and different application directions that need to be selected accordingly. At the same time, once the replacement cost is huge, the general buyer will try not to change the model and brand.

3. The first thing to consider when designing a switching power management chip is the stability, pressure resistance and durability of the product. Because it is responsible for the current regulation of the entire circuit, there is no room for loss. Therefore, the stability of the product directly determines the price. For example, Infineon‘s current product stability is the best in the industry, and the corresponding price is relatively high.

In recent years, power management IC technology has shown a stronger and stronger modular trend. Modular power management IC can effectively reduce the complexity of system design, save circuit board space, improve the long-term reliability of the system, and also effectively reduce the system cost. cost; and the main raw material of the chip is the wafer, and the composition of the wafer is silicon. In addition to silicon, another important material is metal. Aluminum has become the main metal material for making internal components of processors, so the nature and price of wafers, as well as changes in aluminum prices, will affect chips. In addition, inventory factors and falling prices of power management chips are also major factors affecting the market.