(iTers News) –“Digital and analog transistors are behaving differently, but when we think about digital and analog transistors working together, they are not mutually exclusive. As digital CMOS business is growing, we do more video processing and we do more digital signal processing, turning out analog interface business growth with it,“ said Stephan Ohr, semiconductor research director Gartner.

Opening a second keynote session for Analog Semiconductor Leaders’ Forum 2012 held in Seoul, Korea, he presented challenges and new market opportunities for standard analog ICs and application-specific analog chips for smart phones.

According to him, voltage regulators represented 50% of standard analog chip markets, generating US$10 billion in collective sales for 2011, and will continue to lead the growth of standard analog chip market.

Sales of power amplifiers reached US$3.5 billion in 2011, while data converters like ADC and DAC hit US$3.5 billion in the 2011 revenues.

Analog interface chips hit US$1.5 billion in the 2011 sales.

Looking forward, he predicts shipments of standard analog chips will continue to grow, mainly powered by stable demand for power management ICs from computer and industrial sectors.

Yet, he also sees great potentials in application specific analog chips, as a growing number of analog chip makers are integrating analog ICs with digital silicon contents into one single die to meet customers’ ever increasing requirements for smaller chip real estate, lower power consumption, and cheaper BOM, or bill of materials costs.

For example, a number of analog chip vendors are integrating audio codecs with headphone and speaker drivers on a power management IC.

Such high integration are posing challenges, however, as it is forcing analog chip vendors to scale down their process technology to 0.18 and 0.13 micron.

Growing demand for high voltage power ICs will also accelerate a shift in raw materials from silicon to GaN, or gallium nitride and silicon carbide, or SiC.

Photos and Video by JH Bae