GIA: Optimistic business outlook for System-on-a-chip
Global market for System-on-a-Chip is projected to approximate to over US$300 billion by 2020, driven by strong growth in consumer, automotive and industrial electronics, especially in developing countries.
This, says GIA, which is releasing the "System-On-A-Chip (SoC): A Global Strategic Business Report".
System-on-a-Chip (SoC), a cutting-edge semiconductor packaging technology, represents the integration of computer hardware and software components on a single chip.
Continuous developments in microelectronics and electronics packaging technologies have brought SoC packaging to the mainstream over the last few years. A simple SoC is a connectivity chip combining digital and mixed signal circuitry, while a complex SoC includes on-chip integration of graphics and application processor units, among others.
As the primary characteristic of SoC is its ability to integrate multiple functions and features onto a single chip, the SoC technology has been evolving rapidly from powering a simple feature phone to becoming the core of smartphones and tablets.
The technology is also making in-roads into automotive, energy, and industrial electronics. Emerging applications that facilitate "Internet of Things" is also lending traction to market growth.
Innovation remains crucial to survival in the market with ever-changing technology trends in the electronics sector creating challenges in power management, engineering of asynchronous systems and integration of semiconductor IP.
Rapid explosion of mobile devices is a major catalyst for technology advancements in the SoC market. Given the rapidly growing demand for high-performance, intelligent new generation electronic devices, SoC designers are faced with the challenge of designing more robust SoCs with new microarchitecture.
While transistor scaling continues to improve performance and IC costs, companies are now centering greater interest on optimizing power consumption. Product development now entails continuous innovation in transistor materials and design to support the functionality and rich features of today's mobile devices.
Evading the transition from 40nm geometries to 28nm, chip designers are now realigning efforts towards more complex process technologies to develop wafers below 22nm. The new process nodes involve greater complexity with concepts such as immersion lithography, High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) transistors, double patterning, 3d-FinFets, and EUV gradually entering the design flow.
As stated by the new market research report on System-on-a-Chip (SoC), Asia-Pacific represents the largest and the fastest growing regional market with a CAGR of 21.1 percent over the analysis period.
Growth in the region is led by rising penetration of smartphones, tablets, laptops and ultrabooks, growing adoption of industrial automation, and increasing implementations in automotive electronics.
Growing production of electronic devices in response to growing consumer demand is providing a major fillip to the semiconductor industry in the region. China currently represents one of the fastest growing markets for semiconductors including SoCs.