Portable consumer devices drive integrated passive device growth
Staff -- Purchasing, 8/17/2006 2:00:00 AM
Portable electronic devices including cell phones and military and medical products are driving growth for integrated passive devices (IDPs). The bad news for buyers is strong growth coupled with higher raw materials costs means prices will likely rise.
IPDs typically integrate resistors, capacitors, and in some cases, inductors in a single package, and can be either ceramic or silicon-based solutions. Some manufacturers also integrate diodes to produce integrated passive active devices, or IPADs. Silicon-based solutions, such as those offered by Bourns and California Micro Devices, tend to integrate both electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection and electromagnetic interference (EMI) filtering to protect data ports on portable devices, including cell phones.
The IPD market (not including single element devices such as resistor or capacitor arrays) is forecast to grow from $832 million in 2005 to $1.6 billion in 2010, according to market research firm iSuppli Corp. in El Segundo, Calif.
Equipment downsizing and enhanced performance is driving IPD usage in handheld consumer products such as cell phones, gaming consoles, and MP3 players, says Craig Hunter, director of communications for AVX Corp. in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
If OEMs can use IPD technology to generate thinner and more compact products for the consumer marketplace then it has value, says Hunter. “IPDs are typically more expensive than discrete devices, so the advantage has to be in the board area, performance or even in placement costs. If a customer can save more than 40% of the board area then it may be worthwhile to use a single part that is more expensive than four discrete devices,” he says.
Suppliers such as AVX and Vishay say high-reliability military and medical applications are also looking for the same space advantages. They are trying to reduce weight and size, and in particular, to make medical products such as implantable devices less intrusive.
However, pricing has still held back the IPD market since it's still cheaper to purchase discrete devices than to purchase a single IPD, says David Valletta, senior vice president of global strategic sales for Vishay Intertechnology in Malvern, Pa.
Another factor that has slowed the pace of integration is power, Valletta says. “There is a limit to how much power resistors and capacitors on silicon can handle so they are used for trimming or filtering, but not for high power applications,” he says.
There are higher functionality applications in small packages that have forced customers to step up to integrated devices, Valletta says. “We have always maintained that IPDs still win when you factor in the cost of purchasing numerous items, inventorying those parts, cost per unit for placement. All these tip the scale in favor of IPDs,” he says.
Because of the market's complexity, pricing and leadtime trends vary by IPD type. For example, leadtimes for thick film arrays range from four to six weeks up to 10-12 weeks, while deliveries for thin film devices average 10-15 weeks.
Leadtimes for Cal Micro's silicon-based EMI filtering and ESD protection devices run about six to nine weeks, while Bourns' leadtimes for similar-type devices have stretched from eight to 10 weeks to 14-16 weeks.
Buyers need to keep an eye on prices. Suppliers say they anticipate increasing prices this year to offset rising material costs for copper, gold, silver and palladium. For instance, while Vishay is actively moving to increase prices in many product areas, including IPDs, other suppliers are holding back.
Kyle Baker, vice president of marketing for California Micro Devices in Milpitas, Calif., agrees that there is some early indication that there may be cost increases on traditionally packaged solutions such as thin dual in-line flat no-lead (TDFN) and small outline transistor (SOT) packages with the recent increases in commodity prices for gold, silver and copper.
But Baker says to keep in mind that the cost for a chip-scale package (CSP) filter, which isn't impacted by the material cost increases, is about 10-15% lower than a TDFN-packaged filter. In addition, he expects continued cost reductions for CSPs as the market continues to migrate toward smaller form factor solutions.
For example, as device pitches move from .5 mm to .4 mm, CSP devices can realize a significant reduction in cost primarily because the number of die per wafer goes up significantly, which translates into a 30-35% cost reduction. The price for traditionally packaged solutions with .4-mm pitches remains the same as .5-mm, Baker says.
Ian Doyle, product line manager, integrated passive and active devices, for Bourns Electronics in Cork, Ireland sees leadtimes stretching and about a 30% price increase for the supply of bare silicon wafers because of the industry's investment in solar panel technology, which is gobbling up supply.
However, Bourns has not felt the pressure to increase unit prices yet. Doyle says pricing trends for ESD and EMI filter devices may be in fact decreasing primarily due to competition from ceramic-based LC chip array manufacturers and competitors lowering pricing to buy larger market share in the cell phone business. He expects over the next 6-12 months that there may be pressure to increase pricing due to the additional cost of the bare wafer, depending on supply.
California Micro Devices, which also produces silicon-based devices, doesn't foresee any silicon shortages. “
The package with the most potential continues to be silicon-based CSPs because of their higher ESD protection performance and the ability to reduce costs through reduced package size, according to iSuppli.
CSPs offer performance advantages by eliminating parasitic inductance and capacitance, typically associated with leadframes.
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