Following the digital technology development, digital power IC begins its boom. It is expected global power IC-including controller ICs, converter ICs, and system management ICs to grow by over fivefold, reaching $2.6 billion in 2017 from 2013, according to market researcher IMS Research.
“The digital power market is currently one of the fastest-growing segments of the power management industry,” said Jonathon Eykyn, power supply and energy storage analyst at IHS.
Considering the huge market potential of digital power IC industry, we have to give a list of advantages of digital power IC. Comparing with analog power management IC, digital power IC is thinner and shorter; and digital power enables accurately and timely displays the power of
AC-DC, more convenient to manage.
Jonathon also proclaimed “Digital power can reduce the overall bill-of-materials cost by reducing the number of discrete components, reducing the overall footprint, increasing power density and providing the capability to monitor as well as optimize power levels and system requirements while in operation.”
Currently, server is the largest market for digital power with expected market share at 33% in 2013. From 2012 to 2017, the segment will foresee compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.8%.
Despite the 10% price gap from analog
power management IC, more enterprises show interest to adopting digital power IC, to help shorten products’ time to market. A survey shows over two-thirds of manufacturers and designers predicted that more than 10% of their products will have digital control or digital management in 2015.
The fastest growing contributor will come to lighting. Due to the rising usage of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting solutions, digital power for lighting will expand at a CAGR of 146 percent from 2012 to 2017.
With motherboards, notebooks, ultra-extreme, desktop computers, power converters and other devices heating up demand for higher conversion efficiency and smaller size power solutions, digital power begins to extend to consumer electronics market. IMS research pointed out digital power in notebooks and tablet PCs is projected to rise at CAGP of 99% and 82%, respectively; home appliances surge by 76%; cellphone grow by 52%.
“Early adopters of digital power components include information technology and communications infrastructure applications such as servers and telecommunications/data-communications equipment. But now digital power is also entering the consumer realm, as other sectors adopt digital power solutions,” said Eykyn.
Given the broad market space, large international manufacturers have introduced related digital power solutions. Main participants include Microchip, Texas Instruments and other suppliers. Recently, TI introduced a 64 kB of program Flash memory digital power management controller for AC-DC and isolated DC-DC power. The design, TI said, can help designers timely achieve firmware update without shutting down power supply; and enables shortening server DownTime.
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digital power IC, digital power market, TI