Analog ICs are critical to nearly all electronic devices. The world electronics market will consume over 121 billion analog ICs in 2015. This translates to several analog ICs per electronic device.

Analog ICs experienced stronger than average growth over the last several years as the mobility product segment grew at double digit rates. These products have a higher than average analog content, thus growth has exceeded the overall semiconductor market. However, this appears to be changing as the markets for end applications like smartphones and tablets are now growing at a slower rate as these markets saturate and replacements become the growth driver.

“The Internet of Things presents a great growth potential for analog and sensors, but large volumes for that market are still a few years away,” said Jim Feldhan, president of Semico Research.  “Consequently, we are seeing an inflection point in the analog market. Over the next five years, analog sales growth will slow to a CAGR of 4.4% in dollar terms and 5.3% in unit terms.” This growth rate will lead to a market size of $56.5 billion by 2020.

Semico Research’s newest report, Analog Market: Making Digital Systems Come Alive, forecasts 35 analog product categories from general purpose analog to power management to automotive and medical chips. The accompanying Excel spreadsheet includes quarterly data for these categories. Many of these products are made on older process technologies and account for 41.3% of total analog revenues. This report also includes regional data and detailed analog wafer demand data.