The average annual unit growth rate of analog ICs has increased to 8.9 percent for the forecast period of 2013 to 2018, outpacing all other major IC product segments and total IC shipment growth, which is pegged at 7.2 percent growth, according to IC Insights.
Analog unit shipments grew 15 percent in 2013 to become the first IC product segment to ship more than 100 billion units in a calendar year, according to IC Insights’Mid-Year Update to the 2014 McClean Report. Unit shipments are forecast to grow another 12.4 percent in 2014.
Analog unit shipments as a percentage of total IC shipments have been increasing for more than 30 years due to single-chip integration of digital ICs and ongoing system growth that requires more analog ICs, according to the report. For example, in 1980, analog ICs represented 32 percent of total IC shipments, increasing to nearly 40 percent in 1990, 46 percent in 2000, and 49 percent in 2010. IC Insights forecasts analog IC unit shipments to increase to 57 percent of total IC shipments in 2018.
