Product upgrade has directly brought about an increase in power consumption. The latest portable equipments have more powerful multimedia playing functions. There are also more functions, such as photo taking, GPS, Bluetooth and Internet access. As for display, high resolution and big screens are the trend. All this will increase equipment's power consumption. Normally, a 3G mobile phone consumes twice as much as power than an ordinary 2G mobile phone, while one PMP consumes several times as much power as one ordinary MP3 player. There are usually two ways to increase equipment's stand-by time. The direct method is to increase the electric quantity of the power. The other is to increase power conversion efficiency through advanced power management devices and better use of power.
The development trend of power management chips show that performance, size, heat generation and cost often mutually constrain one another. It is very difficult to find a perfect solution. It is only possible to find an optimum solution in the process of compromise. However, new applications and demand can always bring about technology renewal.
More ASSP products will be used for certain applications. Though ASSP cannot solve all the power management demand of a certain kind of equipment, it nevertheless can convert power for some general-purpose modules. It is also good for reducing size. LDO and DC-DC obviously do not have such advantages. In addition, portable equipment uses battery to supply power and LCD screens are now increasing in size. As a result, there will be more applications of battery charging IC and display driver IC.
China's overall power management chip market will gradually slow down. However, the market of power management chips for portable applications will continue to grow fast. In the next few years, the market will maintain a growth rate of over 20%.
