China-based power management IC (PMIC) makers are keen on developing LED driver ICs optimizing mature technology. Chinese LCD driver IC suppliers have caught up with international players technologically and have thus improved their competitiveness globally. With the global LED lighting manufacturing industry continuing to root in China, the production value of China's LED driver ICs will likely rise further accordingly.
According to LEDinside, the global LED display market amounted to US$6.335 billion in 2019, with the China market accounting for the highest proportion of 48.8%.
Bright Power Semiconductor is one of the leading IC-design houses for analog and mixed-signal ICs. Its portfolios include LED driver ICs, motor controller ICs, and AC/DC and DC-DC PMICs. It leads peer Chinese firms in shipments of LED driver ICs, AC-DC charging components and motor controller/driver ICs.
Bright Power focuses on developing high-current DC-DC PMICs for CPU/GPU applications. Company chairman Liqiang Hu stressed that the DC-DC PMIC business line will be a future growth driver for the firm. Hu said more related products will be launched in the second half of 2022 and early 2023. The company will also strive to narrow the technology gap with international IDMs within 3-5 years.
The company recently announced its in-house-developed 10-phase digital-control PMIC, the BPD93010, targeting high-computing chips such as CPU, GPU and AI chips. The BPD93010 can also be utilized for PC, server, datacenter, base station, and autonomous driving applications.
International IDMs such as Infineon, TI and MPS dominate the supply of high-current DC-DC power supply chips used in CPU/GPU applications in China. And Bright Power believes that launching its high-current DC-DC PMICs will help accelerate the industry development in China.
FM-Superchip is a specialist for PMICs, LED driver ICs and MOSFET (RF front-end) chips. Most of its LED driver ICs are for the entry-level to midrange and midrange to high-end LED display applications, with a small proportion for LED lighting applications. Its primary clients include Unilumin Technology, MLS Lighting Technology and BOE Technology.
FM-Superchip has also kicked volume production of small-pitch LED, miniLED and micro LED driver ICs. These chips have entered the supply chains of some downstream brand LED device providers and are poised to bring more orders and revenues in the future.
In June 2019, the company raised an additional fund of CNY1.05 billion to expand its capacity for 5G RF chips, LED chips and PMICs. The expansion project, which is being implemented, aims to boost its combined capacity for RF, LED and PMIC chips by 3.8 billion units.
Meanwhile, with the consumer electronics market becoming mature and price competition within the sector becoming fierce, many China-based PMIC makers have forayed into the automotive electronics market to help sustain sales growth.
According to data released by Hisilicon Technologies in 2021, in the era of automotive smartization and electrification, automotive electronics will likely account for 50% of the production cost of a vehicle in 2030. The smartization trend will usher in the fast development of central controllers, memory ICs, power chips, communication/interface chips and sensor products.
Overall, the transformation in which the applications of PMICs are moving forward to the high-end industrial and automotive markets from the previous entry-level consumer electronics sector has become a prevailing trend in China.
Southchip Semiconductor has realized its goal of catering to the automotive market. It has deepened its deployment in the automotive wireless charging segment that has been proliferating in line with the increasing penetration of new-energy vehicles and rising consumer demand for customized, smart and automatic functionality.
Southchip has launched a series of automotive wireless charging chips, including SC8701Q, SC8001Q and SC5003Q, supporting 5W-50W wireless charging technology. These items have received AEC-Q100 Grade 1 validations and have been adopted in a number of car models from automakers, including Great Wall, BYD, Changan, Geely and Hyundai.
Established in 1988, Shanghai Belling is specialized in analog and mixed-mode ICs and system solutions, with its product lines covering PMICs, smart meters, non-volatile memory devices, power components and ADC (analogy-to-digit) converters.
To further enhance its competitiveness in the PMIC segment, Shanghai Bellin took up a 100% stake in Nanjing Micro One Electronics (Microne) in August 2020. Microne is a large-scale analog IC supplier, focusing on AC (primary) product line, DC (secondary) product line, and MCU (mixed mode) products. The Nanjing-based IC provider has also developed lithium battery charging management ICs and lithium battery protection chips.
Shanghai Belling has also enhanced its deployments in the automotive sector. In 2020, some of its DC-DC and LDO (low dropout regulator) PMICs received automobile-grade product certifications, paving the way for the firm to kick off shipments of LDO products in the first half of 2021.
Shanghai Bellin has rolled out many automotive PMICs and power components for automotive electronics, such as igniting automotive IGBTs and vehicle-use air conditioning IGBT chips.
Shanghai Bellin's sales of integrated IC products reached CNY1.42 billion in 2021, with over 50% targeting industrial applications. The proportion for automotive applications was relatively small but is increasing rapidly.
According to Omida, the global and China's power semiconductors markets reached US$46.2 billion and US$1.82 billion, respectively, in 2021. The correspondent figures are expected to expand by a CAGR of 5.92% and 4.55% to US$54.8 billion and US$19.5 billion, respectively, in 2025.
Power ICs, IGBTs, MOSFETs and diodes are the four most used power semiconductors. Among them, IGBT parts can be operated with wide frequency and power ranges and are ideal for applications in the field of railway transportation, photovoltaic power generation and automotive electronics. This advantage has made IGBT the core technology for new energy vehicles, attracting PMIC makers to deepen their deployments in power semiconductors for automotive applications.
With the support from BYD Auto, BYD Semiconductor has become the most significant domestic vehicle-grade IGBT developer and the only group in China with a complete IGBT supply chain.
Since its establishment in October 2004, BYD Semiconductor has been focusing on developing power semiconductors and has realized mass production for IGBTs, SiC devices, intelligent power modules (IPMs), MCUs, CMOS image sensors, electromagnetic sensors, LED light sources and display products.
Before BYD Semiconductor launched its first IGBT chips in 2009, Infineon had long been the dominant IGBT supplier in China, accounting for over 50% of the market share during that time.
Omdia data showed that from 2019-2020, BYD Semiconductor was second among all IGBT module suppliers for motor drive controllers used in new energy passenger vehicles in China and ranked first among domestic suppliers, with a market share of 19%.
BYD Semiconductor migrated its IGBT production process to IGBT 6.0 in May 2021, from IGBT 4.0 developed in 2018. The new process applies its next-generation high-density trench gate technology developed in-house, which achieved breakthroughs in terms of reliability and product performance comparable with international ranks. It is also the first IGBT maker to realize the mass-production of triple phase bridge SiC power modules for motor drive controllers.
Meanwhile, the recent shortages of IGBT chips worldwide have pushed China-based IC makers to gear up efforts to develop vehicle-grade SiC power chips, and some products have been adopted by new energy vehicles. For instance, BYD Auto's flagship Han EV series feature BYD Semiconductor's SiC power modules.
Shenzhen-based BASiC Semiconductor is also an emerging star for SiC power components. It has successively secured strategic investments from Wingtech Technology and Bosch Group in recent years, and its SiC power devices are widely applied in the field of new energy, electric vehicles, smart grid, rail transit and industrial control.
Established in 2016, BASiC led fellow companies to have its SiC MOSFET chips pass the industrial-grade reliability test in China, paving the way for the mass-production of related chips three years ago.
To cash in on the emerging demand for SiC parts from the new energy vehicle sector, BASiC has launched full-current voltage-grade SiC Schottky diodes, 1200V SiC MOSFETs and automotive-grade SiC power modules. Meanwhile, a 650V SiC Schottky diode has received AEC-Q101 validation.
In addition to the China IC Design Series, DIGITIMES Asia also selected China's top 10 publicly listed IC design companies, based on their sales revenue, the net profit margin in 2020, and company revenue per employee. DIGITIMES Asia addresses their development and outlines its road to success in the report.