Inductor market demand is diversified

In the past six months, in order to enhance the measurable and highly efficient design of downstream electronic products, some inductors using new materials and new technologies have been introduced to the market. MiniMoldingChoke has become the focus of market attention. At present, each inductor manufacturer actively expands its production of important product lines.

Market demand is diversified

Overall, at this stage, inductor products are moving in the direction of miniaturization, high frequency, low loss, and integration. Because there are certain differences in the functional characteristics of various electronic products, different The demand for inductors in the electronics manufacturing industry also has its own priorities.

The portable electronic products represented by smart phones are the main driving force for the rapid growth of the inductor industry in recent years, and are also one of the key markets in which many inductor manufacturers are actively working. According to a survey conducted by the market research organization IDC, the global smartphone market will reach around 1.2 billion units in 2014, with an annual growth rate of approximately 19%. With such products quickly entering the main chip from 4 to 8 cores and communication standards toward the overall development of 4G, the products emphasize more on the multifunctionality and volume reduction. Under this trend, the DC power supply of various multi-function modules requires a large number of power inductors, and the ever-changing wireless communication function drives the single-layer stacked inductors to exhibit multiplication growth. What's more important is how to increase the number of components. , Minimize the impact on the circuit board's high density, and provide effective energy-saving and anti-jamming measures to ensure call quality and high-definition picture effects, is the focus of attention in market applications.

Second, the increase in the LED lighting market in recent years cannot be underestimated. According to the analysis report of China Gold Securities, the LED lighting market will be officially launched in the next year or two. The rise of non-isolated power supply architecture has opened up a new world for power inductor products. In 2013, the LED market demand for inductors was about 1.59 billion. The market size is 480 million yuan. It is estimated that by 2017, the compound annual growth rate in the region will be close to 60%. In 2017, the size of inductors in the LED market is expected to reach 4 billion yuan. Enhancing the product's quality and reliability is one of the important directions for the development of LED lighting fixtures at present. This, to a large extent, requires that the LED driving power source can achieve higher conversion efficiency and constant current accuracy control, with high inductance and loss. Low inductor products will play an important role.

In addition, although the use of inductors in the automotive electronics market accounts for only about 10% of the total industry shipments, due to the higher specification requirements for product reliability in this area, the “threshold” is higher, and the unit price of products is also relatively high. It is more expensive, so this type of inductor product contributes a considerable amount to the overall market size, and is also an application industry that some of the more technically powerful manufacturers focus on developing. As an important developer of automotive inductor products, Ma Liang, Product Manager of Inductor Products of Greater China in TPK Corporation, a member of TPK Corporation, said: “Today, automotive safety and entertainment and other electronic devices With the continuous increase and upgrade, this has brought about a rapid increase in the demand for various inductors and transformers.On the other hand, the automotive electronics industry involves personal safety, therefore, in addition to the basic requirements of the product's performance size, the Reliability also puts forward higher requirements. At present, more and more OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers require passive components such as inductors to pass the AEC-Q200 reliability test.”

Northwest Taiqing Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is a Taiwanese company with more than 30 years of experience in professional inductor development. Xie Mingliang, the general manager of the company, has a deep understanding of the changing needs of the inductor market in recent years. “For example, in the high-definition television market, traditional current-resisting products have not met the demand, and the use of integrally molded high-current power inductors has increased dramatically; in the smart phone and tablet market, thin inductors and micro-stacked inductors and beads have become Application of the mainstream; in the game console market, in order to control the quality and cost, instead of artificially producing network transformers in the past, automated network transformers can provide customers with stable and short-term delivery of innovative products,” he said.

Emphasizes integrated service capabilities

In terms of market supply, due to factors such as investment scale and R&D strength, the current competitive landscape in the industry has basically remained stable. The major inductor suppliers in the world include Murata, Taiyo Yuden, TDK-EPCOS, and Sunlord Electronics. Kellett new, Northwestern Taiwan celebration and so on. Facing the rapid increase in application demands in different industries, whether or not it is possible to provide integrated service capabilities is an important indicator for testing suppliers. To achieve integrated services, it is necessary to have sufficient capacity, a complete line of inductors, and advanced technologies. The production process and other conditions.

"Kellett's new inductor products can be used in various applications such as power supply voltage regulation, EMI immunity, and RF wireless RF signal processing. The manufacturing process covers four major technologies such as thin film, lamination, integral molding, and winding. Power inductors have their own characteristics and advantages, users can choose to use according to different needs.” Qi Lixin, general manager of New Electronic Co., Ltd. Zhongshi Ying introduced that this year the company focused on the miniature one-piece inductor and alloy seal magnetic winding With respect to the development of the power inductors, the production capacity of the HEI series of micro integral type inductors currently reaches 100KK/month, while the production capacity of MRSC series alloy material encapsulated magnet wire wound type power inductors reaches 30KK/month.

Ma Liang also stated that EPCOS' inductor products include chip-wound inductors, power inductors, color ring inductors, choke coils for power and signal applications, and transformers. Applications are focused on automotive electronics and solar inverters. Devices, communications, industrial power supplies, and high-end home appliances. With its superior quality, extensive product range and excellent service, EPCOS transformers for automotive reversing radar systems, CAN bus systems for EMC filtering common mode inductors, transformers for solar micro-inverters and turbulence Circles and other applications occupy a certain market dominant position. At present, the company's production base is located in Germany, Hungary and Zhuhai, China. All production lines are at full capacity and can basically meet the strong demand of customers in various fields. In the future, EPCOS will continue to improve production efficiency by improving production processes and upgrading automation equipment to meet the increasing application requirements of users in various industries.

Talking about the latest development of products, Cai Yuanming, a product engineer at Murata Electronics Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. pointed out that Murata's inductors can be roughly divided into three categories according to the application: radio frequency, turbulent, and DC-DC power. In terms of miniaturization, Murata can provide inductor products from size 0201 size, 01005 size and even smaller size 008004. For power inductors for DC-DC power supplies, Murata is constantly improving product performance through advanced production processes; On the other hand, Murata has also been working hard to develop new products, tap new demands, and discover new application trends.

In terms of local companies, thanks to the state's supporting development plan for strategic emerging industries, a number of mainland inductor companies represented by Sunlord Electronics have made rapid progress in recent years. In order to further meet the needs of market growth, it is understood that Sunlord Electronics plans to raise 600 million yuan by issuing new shares and invest in "chip inductors" expansion project. All projects will be completed in November 2014, and the new production line is expected to The company's current production capacity at the right time, in the future full load, will be able to achieve annual production capacity of 14.4 billion stacked inductors and 2.8 billion winding power inductors, thereby achieving rapid increase in production capacity.

Energy efficiency performance becomes the key

For practical applications in different industries, in the development of various types of inductor products, high energy efficiency performance is extremely important for magnetic cores, chip beads, laminated inductors, wound coils, and power inductors. Performance requirements. Taking portable electronic products as an example, in order to improve battery life and achieve more power savings, power management design is particularly important, and customers have higher and higher performance requirements for inductors. “In the past, customers put more emphasis on efficiency requirements under the operating mode, but now, the efficiency requirements of customers on the standby state are also rising, which makes the efficiency of the performance of the inductor products become a key point in the power management design.” said Zhong Shiying .

For this purpose, Kellett plans to develop a wound inductor with a height as low as 0.6mm for the mobile power terminal in the future; in addition, it will respond to the trend of high frequency, with R&D values ​​of at least 0.16μH and DC impedance challenge 50. % drop in the new generation of products. Especially in terms of efficiency improvement, Zhong Shiying emphasized that relying solely on inductor manufacturing processes is not enough, powder material technology is the key to improving the efficiency of inductor products, and powder material formulations can be said to be the “soul” of inductor product quality, cost, and technology. . According to reports, using Qili's newly developed powder metallurgy technology, it is possible to increase the Q value and the rated saturation current (ISAT) while adjusting the powder formulation so that the product can improve its performance under light and heavy loads. For example, the newly launched HEI series of miniature integrated one-piece inductors uses advanced technology and unique formulation technology to develop small-body and high-performance inductor products, which are currently designated as inductors for some high-end models; MRSC series seals Magnetically wound wire-wound power inductors are made of alloy materials, which increase the saturation current of ferrite materials by 50%, and provide energy-efficient power management solutions for boost circuits of smartphones and portable devices.

“Energy saving, environmental protection, miniaturization and high frequency are the trend of the future development of electronic products. Correspondingly, while continuing to enrich the product range, EPCOS has also focused its development on miniaturization, low loss and integration.” Taking hybrid and pure electric vehicles as an example, Ma Liang introduced that the applications require transformers and other products to have lower losses, smaller size and higher reliability. For this reason, EPCOS has developed new magnetic materials to reduce power consumption. This ensures the high efficiency of the entire power module output; and through the new product structure design, not only reduces the size of the product, but also to meet the automotive AEC-Q200 reliability testing requirements. In addition, in the development of DC-DC main transformers used in solar micro-inverters, EPCOS can achieve greater power density at the same size, and can also integrate the main transformer and other inductors to assist customers. Optimize overall program costs.