Market Trends of China Crystal Oscillator Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the China Crystal Oscillator Market according to our research experts:
Smartphone Accounts for Significant Market Share
- Major companies in the Chinese smartphone industry are Huawei, Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Lenovo. In China, most of the smartphone manufacturing facilities are located in Guangdong province, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai and are expected to significantly sell more number of the smartphone in China in the coming years. This leads to the demand for crystal oscillators currently for improving the use of WiFi and Bluetooth combo chipsets in smartphone applications.
- The crystal oscillators which are being preferred for smartphones are Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillators (TCXO) and Quartz crystal oscillator. At present, mostly all wireless communication functionality found in a handset, including cellular, WiFi, FM, Bluetooth, and GPS, relies on a quartz-based crystal oscillator due to its high-frequency stability a high-quality factor of the resonance and low-temperature drift. Also, TCXO realizes ultra-miniature and high-frequency accuracy suitable for a smartphone.
- TXC Corporation provides Dual-Inline-Package (DIP) and Surface Mount Device (SMD) quartz crystal and oscillator products. Its SMD Quartz Crystal Oscillators with CMOS Output, 8N, and 8R Series are designed with specifications of an output frequency range of 4-54 MHz, supply voltage up to 3.63 V, and frequency stability at 25, 50, and 100 ppm, for making them ideal for smartphones.
- Further, miniaturized crystals should be able to meet miniaturization demands with characteristics such as low power consumption and high performance. In the past, the characteristics of miniaturized crystals could not meet product application demands. But since TXC launched a series of 1.0mm x 0.8mm x 0.3mm (1008) world's smallest crystal (8A series), this crystal is suitable for portable electronic devices, including smartphones with the typical reference synthesizing frequency at 37.4Mhz, 38.4Mhz, 40Mhz, and 48Mhz.
- Furthermore, players are focused on manufacturing an oscillator, which can cover multiple standard frequencies, and they all feature high-frequency traction, low equivalent series resistance (ESR), lead-free, and RoHS compliant. In September 2019, Zhejiang A-crystal Electronic Technology Co., Ltd announced a crystal new version 49series Xtals with frequency from 3.579545MHz to 70MHz. It is a packaged quartz passive crystal oscillator with its simple manufacturing process and high precision, which is widely preferred in consumer electronic devices, including its applications in Bluetooth module 2.4G audio for the smartphone.
- However, in the coming future period after five or more years, the usage of MEMs oscillators is expected to provide a significant demand substituting the crystal oscillator with a frequency range of 50 to 625 MHz. MEMs resonator-based clocks and oscillators are filling applications where their precision and stability can match most crystal circuitry while offering greater reliability, increased ruggedness, smaller size, and even lower cost.
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Electric Vehicle to Witness Significant Market Growth
- According to IEA, China is expected to maintain its global lead with a 57% share of the Electric Vehicle (EV) market in 2030 (28% excluding two/three-wheelers), followed by Europe (26%) and Japan (21%). As the adoption of EVs is expected to surge over the next decade, the industry continues to lower battery costs, improve charging capabilities, and extend EV driving range, along with the focus towards conservation of battery life, which prioritizes the demand for crystal oscillator.
- In the past, Kyocera Crystal Device Corporation had succeeded in developing an AT-cut crystal oscillator (KC2520M) with an output frequency of 32kHz, providing the world's first one low current consumption of 80μA. The crystal device providing use in electric vehicles has the mounting area, which is reduced by approximately 40% compared to conventional products (3225-size) available in the market.
- Further, the requirement of highly-reliable timing devices with robust performance and tight stability under harsh environments accelerates the growth of crystal oscillators in the electric vehicle. Crystal oscillators provide reference timing, and as the reference timing complexity of the systems increases, the easiest solution is to simply add more quartz-based components to each new design.
- Moreover, maintaining temperature and frequency range is most important in the optimized performance and fast prototyping of the vehicle. SiTime Corporation's (acquired by MegaChips having one of its operation fields in China) SiT8925B is the most reliable and the highest quality AEC-Q100 oscillator for high-frequency automotive applications. This device provides the combination of high frequency (up to 137 MHz), high stability (±20 ppm), and widest temperature range (-55 °C to +125 °C) in the smallest 2.0x1.6 mm package. This device also features the industry's best shock and vibration resistance.
- Further, in the future, electric vehicle prototypes equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to improve driving safety will be mandatory by installing multiple sensing devices. To address this in February 2020, Nihon Dempa Kogyo announced the development of the industry's smallest 2016-size crystal oscillator for safety applications in the automotive market. It will be having a frequency range of 1.5 to 80MHz with AEC-Q100/AEC-Q200 compliant of reliability standard.
