(Report produced by: Orient Securities)
1 Analog chip: an important part of integrated circuits
1.1 The downstream application fields of analog chips are complex
Analog chips are responsible for processing continuous analog signals. The semiconductor market mainly includes four major categories of products, such as integrated circuits (that is, chips), discrete devices, optoelectronic devices, and sensors, of which the integrated circuit market accounts for the largest proportion. Integrated circuits can usually be divided into two categories: analog integrated circuits and digital integrated circuits according to their functions. Analog integrated circuits mainly refer to the integration of analog circuits composed of capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc. between the real world and the physical world to generate, amplify and process analog signals (such as sound, light, temperature, etc.) in the form of continuous functions; Digital integrated circuits are integrated circuits that perform arithmetic and logical operations on discrete digital signals, such as binary codes represented by two logic levels, 0 and 1.
Analog chips are an integral part of electronic systems. Compared with digital integrated circuits, analog integrated circuits have complex application fields, long life cycles, long personnel training time, and low but stable prices. Analog chips can be widely used in consumer electronics, communication equipment, industrial control, medical instruments, automotive electronics and other fields, as well as the Internet of Things, new energy, smart wear, artificial intelligence, smart home, intelligent manufacturing, 5G communication and other emerging electronic products.
The training cycle of analog chip talents is long, and experience depends on improving technical barriers. Analog integrated circuit design is mainly through experienced designers for transistor-level circuit design and corresponding layout design and simulation, need to consider noise, matching, interference and many other factors, requiring its designers to be familiar with integrated circuit design and wafer manufacturing process, but also need to be familiar with the electrical and physical characteristics of most components. Most of the digital integrated circuit design is automatically synthesized with the assistance of EDA software by using hardware description language to use the basic logic gate as a unit, and the layout wiring is also automatically generated with the help of EDA software. Compared with digital integrated circuits, analog chip design automation is low, coupled with fewer auxiliary design tools, long test cycles and other reasons, analog circuit design is more dependent on manual design, the experience requirements of engineers are also higher, training an excellent analog integrated circuit designer often takes 10 years or even longer.
According to the degree of customization, analog chips can be divided into general analog chips and special analog chips. General-purpose analog chips, also known as standard analog chips, are standardized products suitable for many types of electronic systems, and their design performance parameters will not be specifically adapted to a certain type of application, and can be used in different products. Dedicated analog chips are designed according to dedicated application scenarios, generally integrating digital and analog ICs, with a higher degree of complexity and integration, and sometimes called mixed-signal ICs. According to IC Insights, in 2022, the proportion of global universal analog chips and dedicated analog chips will be 40% and 60%, respectively.
1.2 Analog chips are divided into power management and signal chain chips
Power management and signal chain chips are important components of analog chips. The broad analog chip market includes three categories: signal chain, power management, and RF. Among them, the power management chip mainly refers to the circuit that manages the battery and electric energy, including charging management chips, converter products, charging protection chips, wireless charging chips, driver chips, etc.; Signal chain chips mainly refer to circuits used to process signals, including linear products, converter products, interface products, etc.
Power management chips: key components for analog ICs, with a broad market space
The downstream market is developing rapidly, and the global and domestic power management chip market space is broad. The power management chip industry has abundant downstream application scenarios, covering various electronics-related fields such as communications, consumer electronics, automotive and Internet of Things. With the development of downstream markets such as new energy vehicles, 5G communications, and the Internet of Things, the number and types of electronic devices continue to grow, and the management of equipment power application efficiency is becoming more and more important, driving the demand for power management chips. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the global power management chip market size was about $36.8 billion in 2021, with a compound growth rate of 13% from 2016 to 2021. In 2021, the size of China's power management chip market exceeded US$13.2 billion, accounting for about 36% of the global market share. With the application and expansion of domestic power management chips in household appliances, 3C emerging products and other fields, the market scale of domestic power management chips will continue to grow rapidly in the next few years. It is expected that the size of China's power management chip market will reach $23.5 billion by 2025, with a compound growth rate of 15% in 20-25 years.
Signal chain chips: Benefit from new technologies and downstream applications and grow steadily
The signal chain is a bridge between the real and digital worlds. The working process of the complete signal chain is: from the sensor to the real world real signal, such as electromagnetic waves, sound, image, temperature, optical signals, etc., and convert these natural signals into analog electrical signals, amplified by amplifiers, and then converted into digital signals by ADCs, processed by MCUs or CPUs or DSPs, and then reduced to analog signals by DACs. The signal chain is the basis for the perception and control of electronic devices, and the basis for the intelligence and intelligence of electronic products.
Benefiting from a long life cycle and more decentralized application scenarios, the signal chain analog chip market has developed well, and the scale of the industry has grown steadily. Signal chain analog chips evolve with downstream developments, toward miniaturization, low power, and high performance. According to IC Insights, the global signal chain analog chip market size will grow from $8.4 billion in 2016 to $11.8 billion in 2023, with a compound growth rate of about 5% over 16-23 years. Among them, amplifiers, comparators, and converter products are the two largest market shares, accounting for about 75% of the signal chain analog chip market size.
2 Multiple factors drive the growth of the analog chip market
The scale of the global integrated circuit market continues to expand, and the Chinese market is developing rapidly. According to Frost & Sullivan, the global integrated circuit market size will be $354.6 billion in 2020, and with the promotion of new technologies represented by new energy vehicles, 5G, AIoT and cloud computing, the integrated circuit industry will usher in further development, which is expected to reach $475 billion in 2025, with a compound growth rate of about 6%. In 2020, the market size of China's integrated circuit industry was 892.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18%. With the continuous improvement of market demand for consumer electronics, automotive electronics, industrial control, medical electronics and other markets, China's integrated circuit industry is developing rapidly, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% in the next five years, and the market size will reach 1,893.2 billion yuan by 2025.
The global market for analog chips has expanded steadily, with China as its most important consumer market. Due to its long service life, the growth rate of the analog chip market is slightly different from that of digital chips. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, in 2021, the global analog chip industry market size is about 58.6 billion US dollars, and the Chinese market size is about 273.1 billion yuan, accounting for about 70%, China is the world's most important consumer market, and the growth rate is higher than the overall growth rate of the global analog chip market. It is expected that the size of China's analog chip market will grow to 334 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 6% in 20-25 years.
The downstream market segments of analog chips have expanded rapidly, the communication market is the largest, and the proportion of communication and automobile has further increased. According to IC Insights statistics, the downstream market of dedicated analog chips mainly includes communications, automotive, industrial, computer, consumer electronics and other fields. Communications is the most important downstream market for dedicated analog chips, including mobile phones, networks and communication equipment, with a global market size of $26.2 billion in 2022, accounting for 32% of the entire analog chip market. Automotive is the fastest growing downstream market for dedicated analog chips, with a growth rate of 17% in 22 years and a market size of $13.7 billion in 2022, ranking second.
2.1 The rapid penetration of new energy vehicles increases the value of analog chips
With the acceleration of vehicle electrification, connectivity, and intelligence, the demand for automotive ICs is increasing rapidly. With the acceleration of vehicle electrification, the increase of vehicle interconnection, and the gradual landing of autonomous driving, automotive semiconductors have expanded from MCUs, power semiconductor devices (IGBTs, MOSFETs), various sensors, etc., to include ADAS advanced driver assistance systems, COMS image sensors, lidar, MEMS and more. Automotive requirements for chip reliability, security, and consistency require AEC-Q100, ISO26262 and IATF16949 certifications.
Vehicle electrification, connectivity, and intelligence have created new demand for analog chips. Analog chips are used in almost all automotive electronic components, in addition to traditional automotive electronics such as car entertainment, instrument cluster, body electronics and LED power management and other fields, but also widely used in the power system of new energy vehicles, intelligent cockpit systems of intelligent cars and automatic driving systems. The powertrain part mainly includes motor controllers, OBC, DC/DC, BMS, etc.
According to iHS and Melexis, electrification has greatly increased the demand for bicycle analog chips in all levels of vehicles from A to E, such as: the use of analog chips for A-class fuel vehicles is about 100, while the demand for A-class pure electric vehicles is as high as more than 350; In the B-segment car, the number of analog chip bicycles increased from 160 for fuel vehicles to nearly 400 for pure electric vehicles, while the use of pure electric E-class vehicles exceeded 650.
High-value products for analog chips for high-growth boosters for new energy vehicles. The global new energy vehicle market penetration rate increased from 2% in 2018 to 8% in 2021, and sales increased from 1.99 million units to 6.44 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 48%. According to IC Insights, the global automotive analog chip market will grow by 17% to $13.8 billion in 2022, making it the fastest growing downstream market for analog chips.
Automotive "Three Modernizations" Empower the Analog IC Power Management Market. Thanks to the electrification, intelligence, and networking of automobiles, more and more electronic components such as sensors, power semiconductors, and motors are installed in the car, and more power management ICs are needed to convert current and voltage, thereby promoting the growth of power management chips. In particular, with the high growth of new energy vehicles, the demand for automotive BMIC has ushered in high growth. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the global new energy vehicle BMS market size increased from $500 million in 2016 to $1.4 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 33%. According to the semiconductor industry forecast, the global lithium battery BMIC market size will increase from $4.3 billion in 2021 to $8 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 14%, of which the automotive CAGR exceeds 40%. Automotive batteries are composed of hundreds, even thousands of cells connected in series and parallel, there will be power imbalance between cells and modules, and a large number of cells in series require the same power between cells, so it is necessary to use battery monitoring chips to detect voltage and current for each cell. At the same time, the charging and discharging process of electric vehicles also needs protection chips to prevent overcharge or overdischarge of some cells.
Automotive BMIC complete solution suppliers include ADI (AFE is primarily from the acquired Maxim and Linear product lines), TI, Infineon, NXP, Renesas (AFE is primarily from the acquired Intersil product line), ST and ON Semiconductor. Among them, the technical difficulty of the AFE chip of the automotive BMS lies in the number of sampling channels, the number of internal ADCs, and so on. In addition, since the demand for AFE chips is proportional to the number of cells, and the number of cells is proportional to the voltage, the demand for AFE for the 800V voltage platform doubles compared to the 400V platform. A 400V system electric vehicle requires about 8 AFE chips and 1 isolated communication chip, while an 800V system requires about 16 AFE chips and 1 isolated communication chip. Automotive signal chain chips provide support for all things connected and information interaction. Automotive signal chain chips serve a variety of purposes. One category is radio frequency ICs, which provide wireless communication for automobiles. The four major wireless communication solutions in the car: cellular network system, WLAN, global navigation satellite system GNSS and V2X Internet of Vehicles, all require multiple RF ICs and RF modules, and most of these components are included in the TCU. The other is specific analog ASSP/ASICs that bridge the gap between sensors and processors. The external real signal is perceived by the sensor, and the obtained analog signal is finally passed to the MCU by the amplifier, analog-to-digital converter, and finally passed to the MCU for processing.
The electrification and intelligence of automobiles have led to the upgrading of interface technologies such as video transmission, and the increase in the number and value of chips. With the configuration of new car models, the demand for intelligent cockpit and advanced assisted driving is becoming stronger and stronger, and the use of high-definition screens and high-definition cameras is increasing. According to the electronic engineering album, the market size of high-definition video transmission chips will expand rapidly with an annual growth rate of more than 35%-40%. The global market demand for automotive cameras is expected to exceed 300 million units in 2025, and the market size of video transmission chips will reach RMB 9 billion, which will further expand the use of automotive analog interface chips. In addition, the HDMI interface for video data transmission continues to be iteratively upgraded, the resolution continues to increase, and the latest 2.1 interface can support 8K-60 frame resolution, which further pulls the value of related analog interface chips.
2.2 5G communication and mobile phone function upgrades drive the growth of the analog chip industry
The wide application of 5G has promoted the iterative upgrading of analog chips in the communication field. Whether it is infrastructure such as smartphones or base stations, a complete 5G communication system includes the iterative upgrade of a variety of analog chips from signal chain to power chain. Analog chips are used in the field of communication in broadband fixed line access, data communication modules, wired networks and wireless infrastructure, of which wireless communication is estimated to account for 91% of the sales of communication analog chips in 2022. Wireless communication modules typically include antennas, RF frontends, RF transceivers, and baseband. Among them, the RF front-end module is the core component of mobile terminal communication.
Smartphones consist of analog ICs, digital ICs, OSD devices, and non-semiconductor devices. Among them, analog ICs can be mainly divided into RF devices and power management devices. RF devices are the core devices for processing radio signals, including RF front ends, RF transceivers, RF switches, RF PAs, etc. Power management devices include fast charging chips, wireless charging chips, etc.
Mobile phone function upgrades mainly drive the market demand for mobile phone analog ICs from multiple levels. In smartphones, according to function, analog chips are mainly used for DC/DC power supply, input power protection, audio/vibration, I/O connection and other functional areas. First of all, the upgrading of communication technologies such as 5G directly leads to the need for mobile terminals to add RF devices that can cover the new frequency bands of smart phones; Second, the increasing functional complexity of smart phones has led to requirements for the performance (noise level, power consumption, etc.) and number of mobile terminal power management chips by each functional module of the mobile phone; Third, mobile phone optical upgrades and fast charging innovations further drive the value of chips such as drivers and fast charging; Fourth, the recovery of demand in the smart phone industry and the increase in the penetration rate of 5G mobile phones are expected to drive the overall demand for analog ICs.
5G technology directly promotes the value of mobile phone analog ICs and RF devices. 5G technology upgrade, in order to cover the new frequency band of 5G, mobile smart terminals need supporting RF front-end devices. 5G by widening the bandwidth, increasing the number of channels to improve the data transmission speed, unlike 4G low-frequency circuits, high-frequency circuits need to be redesigned from materials to devices, from baseband chips to the entire RF circuit, complexity is improved, but also need to increase the number of RF switches, filters, amplifiers to meet the needs of signal reception, filtering, amplification, transmission in different frequency bands.
5G core technology brings opportunities for base station RF chips, and the use of power management ICs increases. The three functional entities of the 5G base station are CU, DU, and aau. DUs and AUs are the original baseband units, and BBUs are split by processing real-time and non-real-time tasks. AAU (Active Antenna Unit) is a combination of RF unit and passive antenna. 5G base stations use large-scale antenna arrays, carrier aggregation, and new spectrum, and demand for PA performance, number of independent RF channels, number of antenna switches, number of filters, and number of PA switches increases. For example, 4G base stations have 12 RF PA requirements, while 5G base stations have up to 192 PA requirements. Since 5G base stations have more antennas, RF components, and higher frequency millimeter waves, the base station power is about 3-4 times that of 4G base stations, and the use of power management ICs increases, requiring about 120 power management ICs for macro base stations and about 20 for small cells.
2.3 The number of AIoT terminals for the Internet of Everything is growing rapidly
Under the trend of the Internet of Everything, the wide application of consumer-grade and industrial-grade IoT terminals has boosted the demand for analog chips. Large-scale IoT service mMTC is one of the three major application scenarios of 5G, characterized by low power consumption and massive access, corresponding to wireless power supply chips, low-power supply chips and 5G communication chips, etc., while IoT terminals also involve various sensors of the Internet of Vehicles and analog chip applications such as smart home microcontrollers and sensors. According to GSMA data, the number of IoT devices connected globally was 14.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 16% year-on-year, of which industrial-grade devices accounted for 47%, and the number of global IoT devices connected is expected to rise to 25.2 billion in 2025, with industrial-grade devices accounting for 55%.
Many IoT terminal applications are driving up the consumption of analog chips. Since the Internet of Things is mainly the interconnection of terminal equipment in the physical world, physical parameters such as pressure, brightness, and distance are important means of information interconnection, and the rapid development of the downstream development of the Internet of Things such as smart homes, smart cities, and drones has become an important driving force for analog chips. For example, the simulation chip of the sweeping robot includes operational amplifiers, data converters (ADCs), linear regulators (LDOs), analog switches, etc., to realize the infrared obstacle sensing, TOF detection, LDS laser ranging, ultrasonic sensing and other functions of the sweeping robot.
3 European and American manufacturers monopolize, domestic substitution potential is huge
Domestic analog IC manufacturers are in a stage of rapid growth, and the internal and external conditions for the further improvement of the localization rate of analog ICs are becoming mature. First of all, the domestic foundry process and process meet the requirements, and the technology is becoming more and more mature, which can be coordinated with analog IC manufacturers; Second, international simulation giants are tilted towards the industrial and automotive fields, reducing resource support for consumption and other fields, creating opportunities for differentiated competition among domestic manufacturers; Third, domestic analog IC manufacturers have gradually broken through product types and quality, and continue to make efforts to introduce products and verify customers. Domestic analog IC manufacturers have ushered in both internal and external historical opportunities, and are expected to accelerate breakthroughs in products, technologies, customers, market shares, etc., and promote the localization of analog chips.
3.1 European and American manufacturers occupy absolute dominance
China is the world's largest market for semiconductors and analog chips. IDC data shows that in 2020 Chinese mainland accounted for 36% of the global analog chip market, surpassing Europe, the United States and other regions. In the income source markets of major international analog chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments and ADNO, the proportion of China's income has a marked trend of increase. In the case of ADNO, China's revenue share increased from 15% to 22% between 2015 and 2021, peaking at 24% in 2020.
The self-sufficiency rate of analog chips in the mainland is low, and the future development potential is large. According to data from the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the self-sufficiency rate of China's analog chips in 2021 is only about 12%, an increase of 6 percentage points from 2017, and the overall upward trend. As far as the analog chip business is concerned, the total turnover of Texas Instruments in 2021 will be 124.7 billion yuan (6.8 US dollars to RMB exchange rate), and the revenue of the top ten domestic analog chip companies is quite different. However, the current more decentralized business pattern of international IC manufacturers has brought opportunities for the development of local analog integrated circuits, and with the acceleration of domestic replacement of chips, mainland analog chips will have greater growth space in the future, and the self-sufficiency rate will be further improved.
European and American manufacturers occupy the vast majority of market share, and the industry concentration is low. According to Frost & Sullivan's statistics, the world's top ten analog IC suppliers in 2019 were basically dominated by European and American countries, accounting for a total of about 67% of the market share. Texas Instruments performed strongly in analog chips, accounting for 19% of the market share in 2018-2019, and the second-tier Adenola, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and Scarstar also exceeded 5%. The overall development layout of analog chips is relatively scattered, and the corresponding market share of the remaining IC manufacturers is not more than 1%, and the industry concentration is low. Taking power management chips as an example, IC Insights data shows that the top five global suppliers in 2020 are Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Adeno, Maxim, and Infineon, accounting for a total of 71% of the market share.
The competition pattern of analog chips is stable, and the market share of CR5 and CR10 has increased. According to IC Insights, the world's top ten analog manufacturers changed little from 2017 to 2020, and only Qorvo made it into the top ten in 2021. Under the leadership of European and American manufacturers represented by Texas Instruments, ADNO and Sijiaxun, analog chips have gradually formed a relatively stable market competition pattern. In five years, CR5 and CR10 have each increased their market share by nearly 10%, and market concentration has increased.
Analog chip head manufacturers have rich product lines and downstream applications. Excellent analog chip design enterprises need long-term experience and technology accumulation, and the world's major analog chip design companies rely on rich technology and experience, a large number of core IP and product categories to form a competitive barrier, and the scale continues to grow. The world's leading analog IC manufacturers mainly include TI (Texas Instruments), ADI (ADNO), Infineon (Infineon), etc., after a long period of development, have formed a wealth of downstream applications and diversified product categories.
In recent years, the product layout of international analog chip giants has tilted towards downstream fields such as automobiles and industries. Texas Instruments TI had full-year 2021 revenues of $18.3 billion, with automotive and industrial sales accounting for more than 62% of its revenue, up from 42% in 2013. Arnold ADI's automotive and industrial downstream revenue accounted for 71.3% in 2021 from 61.6% in 2013. At a time when international manufacturers shift their strategic focus to the industrial and automotive fields, domestic manufacturers are expected to take low-end consumer electronics as the entry point, occupy the low-end market and extend to the high-end market, and gradually achieve differentiated substitution.
3.2 Domestic wafer fabs have greatly expanded production to facilitate upstream and downstream collaboration of analog chips
There are many types of analog chip production processes. Compared with digital chips, more CMOS processes are used, and there are more types of analog chip processes. The driving capability of the CMOS process is poor, and it is difficult to meet the needs of high voltage, low distortion, and high signal-to-noise ratio of analog circuits, so analog ICs use the Bipolar process in the early stage.
However, the Bipolar process consumes a lot of power, so the BiCMOS process has emerged, combining the advantages of the Bipolar process and the CMOS process. The DMOS process has the advantages of wide frequency range and high linearity, and is mainly used in RF power amplifiers, etc. The BCD process combines the advantages of Bipolar, CMOS, and DMOS processes. These special processes require both the cooperation of the wafer foundry and the familiarity of the designer, while digital IC designers rarely need to consider the process issues.
The IDM mode integrates chip design, wafer production, packaging and testing, and the chip design manufacturer in the Fabless mode is relatively independent from the chip manufacturing, packaging and testing links. Most of the international analog IC manufacturers such as Texas Instruments and ADI adopt the IDM model, which can better play its own characteristic manufacturing process advantages; Due to the small scale, domestic analog IC manufacturers are currently based on the Fabless model. Analog chips are manufactured using mature wafer fabrication processes and a large number of 8-inch production lines, and only Texas Instruments among IDM leaders manufactures analog chips through its own 12-inch production line. According to Texas Instruments, manufacturing analog ICs on 300mm wafers can reduce the cost of unpackaged chips by 40% and the cost of completed packaging and test ICs by approximately 20% compared to production on 200mm wafers. In 2009, Texas Instruments opened the RFAB facility, becoming the first company to manufacture analog circuits on a 12-inch production line. In 2010, the company acquired two fabs, one of which can accommodate both 200mm and 300mm production. In 2015, the company transitioned its old DMOS 6 fab to 300mm. The RFAB2 plant began production in the second half of 2022, and the company also acquired LFAB, a 12-inch wafer fab in Lehi. The company plans to build four new plants in Sherman. In 2019, 47% of Texas Instruments' analog product revenue came from the 12-inch production line; About half of Texas Instruments' analog devices in 2020 were manufactured on 12-inch wafers.
Domestic foundries can meet the process and process requirements of analog chips, and can effectively collaborate with analog chip designers, and with the continuous capacity expansion and technical iteration of fabs, the localization of analog chips is expected to accelerate. Compared with TI, ADI, Infineon and other international manufacturers that use the IDM model, most domestic analog IC design manufacturers adopt the Fabless mode. In terms of process, analog chips have low requirements for the process, do not pursue Moore's Law, the current mainstream nodes are still migrating from 180 nm to 130 nm, a small number of advanced products use 28 nm process, domestic wafer foundries can meet the process requirements of analog chips. In terms of process, analog chips usually use the BCD process to drive components under high voltage and high current conditions. BCD has become the choice for IC manufacturing processes such as power management and display drivers. Domestic mainstream wafer fabs have laid out BCD process platforms, Hua Hong Semiconductor's 90nm BCD platform has been mass-produced, and SMIC's 55nm BCD platform has also entered the product introduction period.
The out-of-stock cycle has become an important window period for domestic manufacturers to complete customer verification and achieve product introduction. Analog chip products have a long life cycle, and once they reach customers, they can continue to be available for more than several years. Domestic analog chip manufacturers bind the new production capacity of the foundry, accelerating product introduction and customer verification. Huahong Wuxi's 12-inch characteristic process wafer production capacity has reached 65,000 wafers per month, and production is still expanding; The 12-inch chip production platform planned by Yuexin Semiconductor will achieve a production capacity of nearly 80,000 high-end analog chips per month; CR Micro plans to build a 12-inch mid-to-high-end power semiconductor project with a capacity of 30,000 pieces per month, and achieve production capacity contribution in 22 years. With the release of domestic foundry production capacity and the breakthrough in the quality of domestic analog chips, domestic analog IC manufacturers are expected to further accelerate localization and achieve rapid growth in performance.
Various analog chip companies have established cooperation with many mainstream wafer fabs at home and abroad to ensure smooth supply channels. Domestic analog chip manufacturers actively cooperate with mainstream fabs and have advantages in process node breakthroughs and capacity assurance. Among them, Shengbang has cooperated with TSMC since its establishment and has always maintained a good cooperative relationship; Ming Microelectronics has established strategic cooperative relationships with many leading wafer fabs such as CR Micro, SMIC, Shanghai Advanced, Tower, Hefei Jinghe, etc., and adopted a number of coordination strategies to ensure production capacity supply.
In addition, some domestic leading companies began to transform to Fab-lite. Some leading companies have begun to change to virtual IDM, Fab-lite and other models, such as: Joyson Micro, Thrip, Jehualt, etc., the Fab-lite model makes the design and manufacturing process more closely integrated, which is conducive to the company to make differentiated products. IDM companies such as CR Micro and Silan Micro also continue to enrich their analog circuit product lines.
3.3 The strength of domestic analog manufacturers has been improved, and domestic substitution can be expected in the future
Domestic analog IC manufacturers have rapidly grown in revenue and scale. In recent years, domestic analog IC manufacturers have rapidly expanded their product categories, continued to invest in research and development, and made great progress. The revenue of several listed domestic analog chip companies such as Aiwei Electronics has maintained rapid growth, and the revenue scale of major manufacturers has not exceeded 700 million yuan in 2017, but in 2021, the revenue of companies such as Aiwei Electronics, Jingfeng Mingyuan and Shengbang has rapidly exceeded 2 billion yuan. At the same time, benefiting from the high downstream prosperity of analog chips, the revenue growth rate of domestic analog manufacturers maintained an upward trend, and the average revenue growth rate increased from 29% in 2017 to 107% in 2021. Among them, the revenue growth rate of Siruipu and Nanochip Micro has remained above 100% for three consecutive years, and the development momentum is strong.
The gross profit margin of domestic analog IC manufacturers remained high. In 2021, the gross profit margins of major domestic analog manufacturers remained high, with an average of 50%, of which the gross profit margins of Ming Microelectronics, Si Ruipu and Shengbang Co., Ltd. were 65%, 61% and 55% respectively. In addition, under the background of high industry prosperity and capacity shortage, the overall industry gross profit margin has also improved in the past two years, from 37% in 2017 to 50% in 2021, of which the gross profit margin of Siruipu and Nanochip Micro has remained stable at more than 50% in the past five years.
Domestic analog manufacturers' products accelerate the layout, quantity and quality at the same time. The number of products and technological advancement are the comprehensive embodiment of the technical strength and core competitiveness of analog integrated circuit enterprises. In terms of the number of products, domestic manufacturers have actively expanded the number of product models in recent years. Shengbang Co., Ltd. launched 200 or 300 new products every year from 2017 to 2020, and the number of new products launched in 2021 increased to more than 500, with a significantly increased growth rate, covering 25 categories of products in the two major fields of signal chain and power management, and nearly 3,800 products can be sold. In terms of product quality, domestic simulation manufacturers rely on continuous R&D investment and technological breakthroughs, and the core technical indicators of some products have made breakthroughs. Taking the high-precision and low-power power supply monitoring chip as an example, a series of indicators such as threshold voltage, reset time, and static power consumption have reached the international industry level.
Domestic analog IC manufacturers have rich product lines and a wide range of applications. Domestic analog manufacturers have a rich product line, among which Aiwei Electronics has more than 800 products such as audio power amplifier chips and power management chips, and Si Ruipu has 1,400 products such as linear voltage regulators and power monitoring products. In addition, the downstream applications and customer coverage areas of domestic analog manufacturers are more diversified, of which the main downstream customers of Jingfeng Mingyuan are LED lighting enterprises, Lixin Micro is mainly for the field of consumer electronics, and Nanochip products are used in information communication, industrial control, automotive electronics and consumer electronics and other fields.
Because product iteration is slower than digital chips, the investment in analog chip R&D is moderate. In 2021, the R&D expense ratio of major domestic analog chip manufacturers is concentrated in the range of 10%-30%, of which the R&D expenses of Aiwei Electronics, Shengbang Co., Ltd. and Siruipu ranked the top three, with R&D expenses of 420 million, 380 million and 300 million yuan, respectively; From the perspective of the number and proportion of R&D personnel, the proportion of R&D personnel of major analog chip manufacturers in 2021 is more than 40%, and the number of R&D personnel of Aiwei Electronics and Shengbang Co., Ltd. is the largest.
The per capita profit and revenue generation performance of local analog manufacturers is eye-catching. Per capita profit and income generation can measure the company's technological content and competitiveness. In 2021, Texas Instruments' per capita profit was 2 million yuan, and the per capita income was 4.12 million yuan (6.8 USD/RMB exchange rate). In 2021, the main domestic analog manufacturers will generate a per capita profit of 1.14 million yuan and a per capita income of 3.17 million yuan, which is gradually approaching international manufacturers such as Texas Instruments. In terms of the performance of this index, the per capita profit and income of domestic analog manufacturers are 3.92 million yuan and 6.95 million yuan, respectively, both at the upstream level of the industry.
Domestic analog IC listed companies are expanding into high-end fields such as automobiles. In addition to the rapid growth in the field of consumer electronics, which is gradually reducing the investment of international giants, domestic analog chip companies with strong competitiveness have also entered the automotive field, which international giants attach importance to. In the first three quarters of this year, Nanochip accounted for 9%, 13%, 60% and 18% in the four major fields of consumer electronics, communications, industrial control and automotive electronics, and the proportion of automotive revenue increased to 22% in the third quarter.
Shengbang has formed a sales scale in the automotive aftermarket and has also deeply cultivated in the front-loading market, set up a professional automotive electronics team, and successively launched dozens of signal chain and power management automotive-grade chips, which may have entered the sales stage in the verification and review stage. The LM431BQ, the first voltage reference chip supporting the AEC-Q100 automotive standard, has been officially delivered to users, and the company will provide more abundant system-level solutions from automotive systems. Siruipu has established a complete automotive electronics quality management system and passed the recognition of relevant customers, automotive-grade amplifiers and automotive-grade linear power supplies and other chip products have been mass-supplied, signal chains, interfaces, high-side switches, DCDC, battery management and other product lines will successively launch corresponding automotive-grade products. In the first three quarters of 22, the proportion of automotive electronics revenue increased to more than 5%.
Aiwei Electronics has mastered the AAE closed-loop control technology of linear motor, which is an iterative upgrade of LCC, and chip-level closed-loop detection can automatically complete auxiliary braking. Automotive customers include BYD, Leap, Wuling, etc., and are building Aiwei Vehicle Regulation Center, integrating a complete ecological chain including R&D center, experimental center, test center, and display platform. Since 2021, Jehuat has successively developed automotive DrMOS products and 90A DrMOS products, and intelligent power level module products have continued to enhance their competitiveness, with 1H22 automotive revenue of nearly 6.5 million yuan, accounting for nearly 1%. Xidiwei entered the international brand front-end market, and has completed the supplier qualification introduction of a series of automobile brands, which is applied to Audi, Hyundai, Kia, Xpeng, Hongqi, Wenjie, Renault, Changan and other brand cars. The company's series of AEC-Q100 standard automotive-grade analog chips are under development. At present, the proportion of automotive-grade products in total sales is low, and it is expected to grow rapidly in 3-5 years.