Analog and Mixed Signal IP Market

Market Overview

The global analog and mixed-signal IP market size was valued at USD 117 million in 2021 and is estimated to reach an expected value of USD 370 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 15.5% during the forecast period (2022-2030). Integrated circuits have increased in complexity and cost during the last ten years. The system-on-chip (SoC), system-in-package (SiP), and system-on-board (SoB) design approaches, which are commonly referred to as new design and reuse methodologies, began to be embraced by the industry. The companies using such solutions started to face difficulties related to the utilization and integration issues faced in this paradigm change due to this shift towards miniaturization. IP blocks have become the most popular method for end users in the business to address such problems.

The organizations operating in the analog and mixed-signal IP market undertake strategic actions to retain customers. Thus, many foundry operators offer various hard macro-IP blocks and functions built for their foundry process to lock in the customers. They prove to be costlier when switching the supplier. Soft IP logic can occasionally be considered a substitute for hard IP blocks for vendors who serve specific segments as these are part of a complementing system, which supports each other's functionality. The transition toward a smart and connected ecosystem is already happening, and there has been a surge in the investment to upgrade the telecommunication infrastructure. Due to such developments, the market is expected to experience steady growth in this segment.

Market Dynamics

Global Analog and Mixed Signal IP Market Drivers

Increasing Reusability of AMS Block

Reusable analog IP (intellectual property) refers to analog/mixed-signal IP blocks which can be reused across several chips. They may be designed by a chip company or licensed by a design services company or a third-party IP vendor. Typical analog IP blocks include, for instance, operational amplifiers, digital-to-analog converters, analog-to-digital converters, phase-locked loops, delay-locked loops, filters, serializer/deserializer transceivers, radio-frequency modules, voltage references, voltage regulators, and analog comparators. While specific functions like data converters have become significantly viable as IP functions, others have not from the reusability point of view.

In September 2020, Thalia Design Automation, a company that engages in targeted automation for analog and mixed-signal design and IP reuse, and Dolphin Design, a company offering semiconductor IPs and platform solutions, announced a partnership that is transforming the way IP portfolios are expanded and managed, delivering latest IPs to market more cost-effectively and faster than through traditional processes. Thalia'sThalia's AMALIA IP reuse platform repurposes the design of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits – migrating, refining, and optimizing existing IP for new technologies and applications. This enables IP houses and integrated circuit manufacturers to reuse and diversify product ranges quickly and cost-effectively to meet evolving market demand.

Growing Prevalence of Wireless Communications

The growing demand to bring new and advanced features in various wireless communication products continue to drive the development of analog/mixed IP blocks used for wireless communications. In December 2020, Beken Corporation, a key player in wireless communication solutions, announced that it had completed the acquisition of Adveos Microelectronic Systems, an RF and mixed-signal IP provider based in Greece. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Beken'sBeken's wireless communication capabilities and enhance the company's growth momentum when the developments in wireless protocols provide substantial opportunities both for the foreign and domestic markets. Furthermore, this transaction demonstrates the growing prevalence of wireless communications driving the usage of analog/mixed-signal IP blocks.

Global Analog and Mixed Signal IP Market Restraint

Complexity and Sensitivity of Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) design

One of the most acute challenges designers face amid mounting SoC complexity is efficiently designing more reliable analog circuits. Previously, analog components were developed separately and then glued into the system at the board level. However, modern SoCs demand more onboard analog functionality to meet performance and cost requirements. For developers of analog and mixed-signal IP blocks, there's a complexity and sensitivity challenge of redesigning blocks for new process nodes to take advantage of improved manufacturing and more optimized design rules. Mixed-signal system performance often falls due to sensitivities in the blocks' interoperability and interfacing rather than the blocks' specific performance. Such factors hamper the market growth.

Global Analog and Mixed Signal IP Market Opportunities

Applications in the Majorly Growing Industries

Various market vendors are investing in Research and Development to develop a broad family of IP for IoT devices that can be analog, digital, and memory IP blocks as well as processors for DSP and control tasks industry-leading mixed-signal design and verification tools. Vendors can provide a combined solution for developing innovative, winning IoT devices with tools and IP.

These IPs have numerous applications in the automotive industry, and growth is anticipated in the medical and healthcare sector during the forecast period. The IPs are increasingly being used during the development of vehicles to vehicle infrastructure and ADAS systems, Active Noise Control, and Infotainment in the automotive industry.

Analog and mix signal IP is the critical enabler of high-quality audio and voice, next-generation LTE and 4G handset designs, imaging and video pre-and post-processing, and always-on speech, face, gesture, and motion recognition. With application in all the majorly growing industries, the growth prospects for analog and mix-signal IP are favorable throughout the forecast period.

Regional Analysis

By Region, the global analog and mixed-signal IP market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA. Asia Pacific accounted for the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 16.5% over the forecast period. Due to its dominant position in the consumer electronics, semiconductor, and other telecommunications and equipment manufacturing industries, the Asia-Pacific region represents the largest global market for analog and mixed-signal IP. China holds approximately 60-70% of the world's electronics production and assembly capacity. China also dominates the 5G technology globally, with full network coverage planned in 50 cities by late 2020. The consumption of semiconductors is rapidly increasing in China, compared to other countries, owing to the continuing transfer of global, diverse electronic equipment to China. According to Xinhua, in October 2019, the world's most extensive 5G network services were launched by the three largest Chinese network operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. Such trends are expected to create significant demand for analog and mixed-signal IPs in the region.

North America is the second largest region. It is estimated to reach an expected USD 152 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 14.3%. The demand for analog and digital mixed-signal IP is driven by the growing utilization of these products as building blocks. The telecommunication sector in the United States has been actively investing in 5G infrastructure. The end-user industry in the country accounts for a significant portion of 5G technology's global consumption. The US dominates the regional 5G market regarding investment, adoption, and applications in the North American region. The nature of the 5G superfast wireless networks is expected to provide the primary impetus to the telecom industry, which is experiencing slow growth. The US Telecom Association estimated that the US telecom operators will spend around USD 104 billion by 2025. It is expected to be essential for the telecom service providers to upgrade existing 4G networks to the upcoming 5G standards and execute the complete installation of 5G wireless services. Such trends are expected to create ample opportunities for regional market growth.

Europe is the third largest region. Europe is home to some of the most important tech hubs in the world and a significant driver and adopter of modern technology. The growing penetration of advanced technologies and the increasing adoption of semiconductors in various regional industries are driving the market growth. The UK government has also announced a series of multi-billion-pound measures designed to boost Britain'sBritain's digital infrastructure. The GBP 5 billion may focus on broadband infrastructure across the country, and a further GBP 1 billion may also be delivered for 4G coverage to 95% of the country by 2025. All the above trends are expected to create significant space for the growth of the market studied.

Segmental Analysis

By Design, the global analog and mixed-signal IP market is segmented into Firm/Soft IP and Hard IP. The hard IP accounted for the largest share and is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR of 15.8% over the forecast period. Hard IP blocks are optimized for performance, size, or power and mapped to a specific technology. They are usually offered in GDSII stream format and an accompanying set of EDA models or views. They are optimized for a particular foundry process. If the originating soft SIP was ''hardened'' for a specific device of FPGA, they might also be offered in "bit-stream" format. Hard SIP typically has a data sheet specifying items, such as speed, power, and area like that found in a finished discrete IC. Hard IP products tend to resemble discrete ICs and are treated very differently. Such characteristics contribute to segment growth.

Firm/Soft IP is the second largest segment. Firm IPs are reusable blocks that have been topologically and structurally optimized for performance and area through placement using a generic technology library. These IPs are more flexible and portable than hard IP blocks and have more predictable performance and area than soft IP blocks. They offer a compromise between soft and hard IP. Developments in the space include the announcement of PLDA SAS, stating that its XpressSWITCH™ IP, a switch Soft IP (SIP), passed all Gold and Interoperability tests, running on an FPGA-based add-in card, with both upstream and downstream ports functioning at 16 GT/s. Such developments provide significant scope for the market over the forecast period.

By Product, the global analog and mixed-signal IP market is segmented into A2D and D2A converters, power management modules, RF, and other products. The A2D and D2A converters accounted for the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 15.8% during the forecast period. The A2D or D2A converter is an electronic circuit that converts analog signals to digital or vice-versa. It is majorly used for end-user applications, such as automotive and telecommunication, where the many adoptions of electronics components create opportunities in the market.

The RF segment is the fastest growing segment. IP in the RF space is essential for any designer, preferably for those not willing to "start from scratch" on each design. Prominent players in the market emphasize forming a strategic alliance, which will not only aid the companies in garnering higher market share but also boost their presence across the world. For instance, Mentor, a Siemens company, announced essential improvements to the Analog FastSPICE Platform in June 2020 with the launch of Analog FastSPICE eXTreme technology for nanometer-scale verification of massive, post-layout analog designs. Such developments are expected to provide a strong impetus for market growth.

By the End-User Industry, the global analog and mixed-signal IP market is segmented into consumer electronics, telecommunication, automotive, industrial, and other end-user industries. The consumer electronics segment accounted for the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 15.8% over the forecast period. Players focus on the challenges and opportunities in the 5G, AI, and IoT markets and develop new products to win in these segments. For instance, in Dec 2020, Omni Design Technologies collaborated with Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) to enable customers to bring their semiconductor products to market faster using Omni Design IP. This partnership will allow customers to bring their semiconductor products to market faster using Omni Design IP. Further, integrating several components on a single IC enables manufacturers to develop compact consumer electronic devices, thus, driving the growth of the mixed-signal systems on chip (SoC) market, thereby augmenting the development of the Analog and Mixed Signal IP market.

The automotive segment is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR of 17.2% over the forecast period. With the consistently growing adoption of mechatronics across industrial applications, the demand for related electronic components such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) has witnessed dramatic growth over time. Designers of application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) logic systems can use IP cores as building blocks, thereby boosting the market growth.

Recent Developments

• May 2022 - To increase performance and design flexibility for high-speed trading systems where every nanosecond counts, Silicon Creations, a leading provider of high-performance analog and mixed-signal intellectual property (IP), has teamed up with Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a leader in high-performance FPGAs and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP.
• February 2022 - Silicon Creations, a well-known provider of high-performance analog and mixed-signal intellectual property (IP), declared today that it had joined the Accelerator - IP Alliance Program of Intel Foundry Services (IFS). Intending to lower design barriers, reduce design risk and expense, and accelerate the time-to-market for clients' products, this worldwide alliance program encourages a dependable and thorough collaboration between IFS and its ecosystem partners.