Recovery expected to begin in '21 and peak in '23
Contactless Demand Not Leading to MCU Market


Microcontroller units (MCUs), widely used in automobiles, industrial and commercial equipment, home appliances, and embedded system applications, were found to have suffered the greatest losses among major IC products due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

IC Insights stated this on the 25th while releasing the annual update of the '2020 McClean Report on integrated circuits'.

According to the annual update, global MCU revenue this year is expected to reach approximately $14.9 billion, an 8% decrease from 2019. This falls short of the peak of approximately $17.6 billion recorded in 2018.

Starting next year, it is expected to show a recovery trend, recording sales of approximately $15.7 billion, a 5% increase compared to this year. The recovery is projected to continue, increasing by 8% year-on-year in 2022 and another 11% in 2023 to reach an all-time high of $18.8 billion.

Shipments are also expected to decrease by 9% in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching approximately 23.5 billion units. In 2021, driven by market recovery, shipments are expected to increase by 6% year-on-year to approximately 24.9 billion units. Following this, shipments are expected to increase by 8% in 2022 and 10% in 2023, reaching an all-time high of approximately 29.6 billion MCUs.

IC Insights predicted that although demand for computers and the internet increased due to COVID-19, this demand would only account for about 4% of total MCU sales.

He also explained that COVID-19 is having a negative impact on major MCU demand sources, including automobiles ($6 billion), which are expected to account for 40% of this year's MCU sales, and industrial equipment ($4.3 billion), which is expected to account for 29%.