Single-chip microcontrollers for embedded control and computing functions are ubiquitous and continue to be designed into more systems. Much of the new growth in MCUs is driven by the proliferation of embedded automation and sensors. The popularity of MCUs is a key factor in the inability of suppliers to keep up with the strong rebound in 2021 due to the 2020 global recession triggered by the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
After falling 7% in 2019 due to a weak global economy and 2% in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, MCU sales rebounded in 2021, rising 27% to a record $20.2 billion. The 2021 surge is the highest percentage increase for MCUs since 2000. The average selling price (ASP) of MCUs climbed 12% in 2021, the highest annual increase since the mid-1990s. Production-constrained MCU shipments will only grow 13% to 31.2 billion units in 2021.
Amid last year's strong MCU recovery, the sales rankings of the five largest microcontroller vendors remained unchanged from 2020, according to IC Insights' latest 2022 McClean Report service for the second quarter of 2022 (Figure 1). The 2Q update shows the top five MCU suppliers for 2021, with three in Europe (NXP, STMicroelectronics and Infineon), one in the US (Microchip) and one in Japan (Renesas).
The five largest microcontroller suppliers develop and sell ARM-based MCUs. These companies will account for 82.1% of global MCU sales in 2021, compared to 72.2% in 2016, implying that the giants in the microcontroller space continue to expand. The largest increase in MCU suppliers since 2016 was due to major acquisitions and mergers.
According to the updated report, the five largest MCU suppliers are significantly larger than the rest of the microcontroller top 10. For example, the bottom half of the top 10 (Texas Instruments, Nuvoton, Roman, Samsung, and Toshiba) had $2.3 billion in MCU sales last year, or 11.4% of the total market. Outside of the top 10, MCU suppliers will only have a 6.5% market share in 2021.
In 2021, No. 1 NXP in the Netherlands slightly expanded its MCU revenue lead over No. 2 Microchip by $103 million. Microchip added about $40 million to its sales lead over No. 3-ranked Renesas last year, according to the latest estimates from IC Insights' second-quarter update report.
Fourth-ranked STMicroelectronics had the strongest sales growth in the MCU rankings, with 2021 revenue rising 35%, nearly putting the company ahead of Renesas and just $46 million behind its Japanese rival. Renesas was the largest MCU supplier for the first five years of the past decade, but was pulled down in 2016 after NXP bought Freescale in late 2015. Renesas' market share in MCU sales will be 17.0% in 2021 compared to 33.1% in 2011.
Germany's Infineon maintained its fifth position in the 2021 microcontroller rankings, with sales rising 22 percent to $2.4 billion, about $996 million less than ST's sales in the MCU segment last year. Infineon is among the top five MCUs after its $9.3 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Cypress Semiconductor in April 2020 to further expand automotive microcontrollers, power management and other embedded system applications.
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