Military and aerospace applications rank last on list of top markets for power-management ICs

May 1, 2008
The largest share of all power-management integrated circuits (ICs) shipped in 2007 were for consumer electronics, which accounted for 29.2 percent of that market, report analysts at market researcher Venture Development Corp. (VDC) in Natick, Mass.

The largest share of all power-management integrated circuits (ICs) shipped in 2007 were for consumer electronics, which accounted for 29.2 percent of that market, report analysts at market researcher Venture Development Corp. (VDC) in Natick, Mass.

Following consumer electronics in use of power-management ICs shipped last year were telephone and data communications, computers and office automation, industrial automation and control, merchant power supplies, instrumentation, medical, and electronics processing equipment.

Military and aerospace applications of power-management ICs rank last on VDC’s list of the top markets for power-management ICs, accounting for 1.4 percent of that market. This information is in the VDC report entitled, “Power Supply and Power Management Integrated Circuits: Global Market Demand Analysis.”

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Strong growth of digital video recorders (DVRs), digital cameras, and portable media players have been and are expected to be significant contributors to the healthy consumer electronics market. In these, and most other consumer electronics products, new features and reductions in size have increased system complexity. This increased complexity, along with lower operating voltages and higher currents, is placing higher demands on power supplies and batteries.

At the same time, consumers are also expecting longer periods between battery charges and electronics that are increasingly efficient in their use of electricity. New Energy Star regulations that went into effect in 2007 place stricter efficiency demands on a wide range of consumer electronic equipment during both operating and standby modes.

These regulations and new features that encourage consumers to upgrade devices have resulted in semiconductor manufacturers developing new ICs that can support the higher performance demands of consumer electronics and still enable the design of equipment that can meet or exceed Energy Star’s specifications. For more, visit vdc-corp.com.

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