Chinese analog chip firm comes to Europe
SG Micro has not made much of an impact in Europe, yet. Like most Chinese fabless companies founded in the early part of this century, their immediate market and concern was supplying local domestic manufacturers of electronic equipment with the parts they require at an advantageous price.
However, SG Micro has come to the notice of international players who use contract manufacturing in southeast Asia and has claimed that its power management ICs were designed into smartphone reference designs from Qualcomm and MediaTek. The company said it has enjoyed similar success in video buffer, audio-line drivers and load-switch and reset ICs in digital TV and set-top box reference designs from Hisilicon, MStar, MediaTek, Ali, Zoran, Marvell and Broadcom.
SG Micro, founded in 2003 by industry executives with US experience, has its headquarters in Beijing. From the beginning the company worked with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) as its foundry supplier. And it now has more than 200 employees and dedicated design centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in China.
SG Micro started with operational amplifiers for industrial applications and expanded into the mobile communications, digital TV and set-top box markets with audio power-amplifier, analog switches, power supply, and video/audio-line driver products. The company had grown annual revenue that is predicted to be $50 million in 2014 and has been profitable for the last five years.
SG Micro’s analog products are catalogued in 15 product families and besides op amps include, comparators, LDOs, analog switches and MIMO switches, LED drivers for LCD backlights, and flash LEDs, over-voltage and over-current switches, dc/dc convertes, Li-ion battery chargers and power management ICs.
Three years ago, having achieved success in China, SG Micro set about securing customers in Taiwan and South Korea and is now planning to expand in Central Europe and Japan, the company said in a background document.
The company has announced four product families it can supply into Europe. These are: SGM8551/2/4 family of op amps; the SGM8701 ultra-low power comparator, which operates from 1.4 to 5.5V and draws 300nA; the SGM6511/416-input, 8-output crosspoint switch supporting signals up to 250MHz; and the 32V, 150mA, low power LDO family SGM2201/2/3.
SG Micro will be exhibiting at Electronica, which happens in Munich, November 11 to 14.
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