According to Jiwei Network, power management chips (PMICs) are responsible for controlling, converting, distributing, and monitoring power in circuit systems. They are the power supply hub and link for all electronic products and devices, and are also one of the largest sub markets for analog chips.

The Research Report on China's Power Management Chip Industry (2023) (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was released by UnitMicro Consulting, which comprehensively combed and presented the panorama of China's power management chip industry from four dimensions: definition and classification of power management chips, power management chip market, power management chip manufacturers in Chinese Mainland, and power management chip industry outlook.

Classification of power management chips

Power supply chips include battery management chips, AC-DC chips, DC-DC chips, LED driver chips, gate driver chips, etc.

The battery management chip is mainly used to ensure the safe and stable output of electricity from the battery, extend the battery's service life, and can be further divided into metering chips, charging management chips, monitoring and balancing chips, input protection chips, and fast charging protocol chips. The AC-DC chip is used to convert high-voltage AC into DC and reduce voltage; The DC-DC chip also includes a linear voltage regulator (LDO) and a switching voltage regulator (narrow DC-DC chip). The linear voltage regulator is used to achieve voltage reduction, while the switching voltage regulator is used to achieve voltage reduction, voltage increase, output constant voltage, and conversion voltage; LED driver chip is used to drive LED light or make LED module components work normally; The gate driver chip is used for conducting power devices such as MOSFETs and IGBTs.

Power management chip market

Power management chip products exist in almost all electronic products and devices. With the increasing demands of electronic devices for the efficiency, energy consumption, volume, and intelligent level of power management, the power management chip industry has broad growth space. According to WSTS data, the global power management chip market size in 2022 was $40.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%. According to IC Insights data, it is expected that the global power management chip market will reach $52.6 billion in 2025, with a CAGR of 8.8% from 2023 to 2025.

Foreign companies occupy over 80% of the global market share in power management chips, with foreign companies represented by Texas Instruments (TI), Adi, Infineon, and others maintaining leading advantages in product line integrity and overall technical level.

Due to the wide variety of power management chips and the difficulty for top manufacturers to gain a monopoly advantage, the overall competitive landscape is relatively scattered.

Domestic domestic power management chip design companies are the first to enter the civilian consumer market, gradually replacing the market share of foreign companies in the field of low-power consumer electronics, and their products are also developing from low-power to medium to high-power. With the improvement of technological level, major domestic brands have a trend to enter the mid to high end market. Meanwhile, driven by downstream industry demand, the production and sales of power management chips in China are gradually increasing, thereby promoting the continuous expansion of the market size of power management chips in China. By 2025, the market size of China's power management chips is expected to reach 23.5 billion US dollars.

In terms of application scale, automotive, communication, and industrial products account for a relatively high proportion. From the perspective of development trends, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, an increase in the number of communication devices, and an increase in the number of single chip base stations, it will bring considerable growth to power management chips in the automotive and communication fields, while the consumer sector will still be in a slowing trend.

From the perspective of different application markets for power management chips:

In the consumer electronics market, consumer electronics occupy the majority of the application market for power management chips. In 2018, the mobile and consumer electronics sectors accounted for over 50%. However, as global consumption slows down, it has offset the demand for growth in the consumer electronics category, and the overall demand for power management chips is relatively stable. The shipment volume of laptops and tablets has remained stable over the years, with stable demand for built-in power management chips and charger configured power management chips. In the field of Bluetooth audio devices, the global and Chinese TWS headphone shipments have doubled, directly driving the demand for power management chips.

The automotive market, with rapid growth in global and Chinese sales of new energy vehicles, continues to benefit from the automotive power management chip market. Driven by new energy vehicles, the global and Chinese market demand for power battery BMS is rapidly growing. In addition, there is great potential for the localization of automotive grade chips, and there is a clear trend of domestic substitution. Several domestic power management chip companies, such as Shengbang Micro, Xidi Micro, Xinpeng Micro, Jiehuate, and Yingjixin, have entered the automotive field.

In the communication base station market, the 5G base station power supply is mainly composed of basic components, batteries, and other components. The components mainly include power management IC, fast recovery diode, Schottky diode, driver IC, control IC, etc. Power management is mainly used for modules such as PSU, BBU, RRU, RF units, and antennas. Under 5G conditions, small base stations require about 20 power management chips, medium-sized base stations require about 60 power management chips, and macro base stations require about 120 power management chips. The usage and value of power management chips have increased under 5G conditions. At the same time, the construction of 5G communication base stations far exceeds the construction of 4G base stations, and the demand for power management chips continues to grow.

The IoT market, with a steady growth in the global IoT market size and a steady increase in the number of IoT connected devices, has brought huge development space to the power management chip market. From 2015 to 2021, the number of IoT connected devices worldwide increased from 3.6 billion to 12.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 23%. IoT Analytics predicts that the number of IoT connected devices worldwide is expected to reach 29.7 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 16%.

Power management chip manufacturers in Chinese Mainland

Nowadays, power management chips in China are mainly monopolized by overseas companies, and there is broad room for domestic manufacturers to replace them. The main enterprises related to power management chips include Shengbang Shares, Siripu, Xinpeng Micro, and Biyi Micro. From the perspective of enterprise operation, the total operating revenue of most enterprises has shown an overall upward trend in recent years. As the main operating product of enterprises, the operating revenue of power management chips has also shown an upward trend, and their production and sales have been continuously increasing due to the development of downstream industries. The profit space of enterprises is relatively large, However, this also attracts more and more enterprises to join this industry, leading to intensified competition between industries and severe product homogenization.

From the perspective of representative manufacturers:

Xinpeng Micro

Xinpeng Micro was founded in 2005 and was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on July 22, 2020. The main products are power management chips, and there are over 1200 effective power management chip products. At present, it is a leading power management chip manufacturer in China, with advantageous products including AC-DC chips, Gate Driver chips, etc. It started with household appliance power chips and gradually expanded downstream to the fields of standard power supplies and industrial drivers.

In 2022, household appliance products accounted for over half of the revenue, reaching 52%, standard power products accounted for 24%, and industrial control power products with higher gross profit margins accounted for 21%. Compared to 2021, the proportion of industrial control power products has increased, but household appliances and standard power products with lower gross profit still account for a higher proportion.

Bi Yi Wei

Biyi Microelectronics is a power management chip design company operating in a troubleshooting mode, founded in 2014. It has three major product lines: driver IC, AC/DC, and DC/DC (including LDO), and has achieved mass production of analog front-end chips. At present, we are actively laying out power management chips such as battery management, and expanding the signal chain chip categories such as amplifiers, converters, and sensors.

In 2022, Biyi Micro's revenue mainly came from its two major product lines, Drive IC and AC/DC, accounting for over 99% of the company's total revenue. The driving IC product line achieved a revenue of 288 million yuan in 2022, accounting for 54.72% of the revenue. The AC/DC product line achieved a revenue of 237 million yuan in 2022, accounting for 44.99% of the revenue.

Shengbang Shares

Shengbang Weicheng was established in 2007 and has been developing for 16 years. Currently, it is a leading domestic analog chip enterprise with 25 major categories and over 4000 available part numbers. Its products fully cover the fields of power management and signal chain, and are widely used in various fields such as communication, consumption, industry, medical, and automotive.

Shengbang Microproducts are divided into two major product categories: power management and signal chain, with the former accounting for about 70% of revenue and the latter accounting for about 30%. Key power management products include DCDC, LDO, charger, AMOLED power management chips, etc. Key signal chain products mainly include operational amplifiers, AD&DA.

Siripu

Siripu was founded in 2012, and its product line mainly includes two categories: signal chain and power supply. The signal chain category includes linear products, converter products, and interface products, while the power supply category includes linear regulators, power monitoring products, switch mode power regulators, and other power management products. At present, Siripu has over 1600 product categories for sale, with over 3700 customers. Its products are applied in fields such as information and communication, new energy and automobiles, industrial control, monitoring and safety, medical health, and instrumentation. The product definition is more inclined towards industrial market demand, and it has a competitive advantage in electronic system applications that are more industrial in information and communication, monitoring and security, and industrial control.

In 2022, signal chain revenue accounted for 70.8%, while power supply accounted for 29.2%.

Aiwei Electronics

Aiwei Electronics was founded in 2008, focusing on the design of high-quality mixed signal, analog, and RF integrated circuits. The main products are general-purpose chips, with downstream applications concentrated in the smartphone market. They can also be applied in wearable devices, smart portable devices, IoT devices, and other fields. The representative product categories include audio amplifier chips, power management chips, RF front-end chips, motor driver chips, etc., with over 470 product models.

Outlook for the Power Management Chip Industry

The domestic substitution effect of power management chips has been strengthened, and they have been upgraded from consumer electronics to high-performance fields. Against the backdrop of policy support and trade frictions between China and the United States, the substitution effect of domestic integrated circuit products on imported products is significant. The quality and market recognition of Chinese integrated circuit products are gradually improving, and some local power management chip design companies are gradually rising in fierce market competition. The overall technical level gap with foreign design companies is constantly narrowing. The power management chip products designed and developed by domestic enterprises are in multiple application market fields.

The application field of power management chips is showing a transformation from consumer electronics to high-performance fields such as industry and automobiles. In addition, new application scenarios and fields continue to emerge, and the application scope of power management chips will be wider, with more refined and complex functions. The demand for efficiency and energy conservation will also be more prominent, leading to a richer demand for power management chips. The global power management chip market will continue to benefit.

The technological trend of high efficiency, low consumption, high integration, and intelligence is strengthening. With the continuous increase in the types, functions, and application scenarios of electronic products, power management chips, as the energy center of various electronic devices, are facing the trend and demand of integrated, efficient, low consumption, and mixed digital and analog design.

Firstly, with the increasing demand for lightweight terminal products and the complexity of application scenarios, built-in chips need to have a more compact volume and fewer peripheral devices while maintaining stable functionality, which puts higher demands on integration and packaging technology; Secondly, in the field of power supply, energy conversion efficiency and standby power consumption are core indicators, and power management chips are developing towards high energy conversion efficiency and low power consumption; Finally, power management chips are gradually embedding digital and intelligent functions from a simple analog chip form. Unlike traditional power chips, power management chips with a certain degree of intelligence can be expanded to more application fields.

At present, the "Research Report on China's Power Management Chip Industry" has been launched on the official website and APP of Aijiwei. Welcome to log in to the official website and APP of Aijiwei. Click on the "Jiwei Report" column on the homepage to place an order.