This section provides an overview for microcontrollers (mcu's) as well as their applications and principles. Also, please take a look at the list of 29 microcontroller (mcu's) manufacturers and their company rankings. Here are the top-ranked microcontroller (mcu's) companies as of November, 2024: 1.CHINA MICRO SEMICON CO.,LIMITED, 2.Kuongshun Electronic Limited, 3.NXP Semiconductors.
Table of Contents
Figure 1. Appearance of the microcontroller
A microcontroller is an electronic component that contains all the basic functions of a computer in a single IC chip.
Inside a microcontroller is a semiconductor called a CPU that performs arithmetic operations and a storage device such as ROM/RAM. A device in which a microcontroller is embedded in an electronic device is also called an embedded device.
Since a microcontroller can realize various functions in a single IC, it can contribute to reducing the number of parts in a product and the number of man-hours required for design and development. Today, microcontrollers are indispensable for various operations in electronic devices.
Figure 2. Microcontroller uses
Microcontrollers are used in familiar products such as automobiles and home appliances, including rice cookers. Here are some examples of other home appliances in which microcontrollers are used.
In addition to home appliances, microcontrollers are also used in microcomputer meters that measure household electricity and gas usage, and in game consoles like the Switch. Microcomputers are installed in a wide variety of electrical appliances around us.
Figure 3. The basic configuration of the microcontroller
Microcontrollers consist of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), I/O (Input/Output), timer, and clock generator. This configuration enables the microcontrollers to receive some input, perform programmed processing, and output a signal.
The components of microcontrollers and their roles are as follows:
In addition to the basic configuration, peripheral circuits, such as power supply circuits, oscillator circuits, and reset circuits, are also configured. These circuits are placed outside the microcontrollers but are necessary to start/control the microcontrollers.
Microcontrollers are used in various applications, with numerous types tailored to specific specifications and performance requirements. This section discusses automotive microcontrollers, home appliance microcontrollers, and industrial microcontrollers, and explains the features of each type of microcontroller.
In-vehicle microcontrollers are used to control the engine and peripheral devices in automobiles. In engine control, they calculate the amount of fuel injection and ignition timing and send output signals to actuators.
Another role of the in-vehicle microcontrollers is to control electric motors such as power windows. It is said that about 100 motors are used in each automobile.
Microcontrollers are used in rice cookers, hair dryers, cordless vacuum cleaners, and other appliances. Microcontrollers for home appliances are required to be compact, power-saving, and inexpensive.
Microcontrollers are used in industrial applications such as machine tools, industrial robots, and plant control. Since a factory shutdown due to a malfunction reduces productivity, industrial microcontrollers are required to have high reliability to continue operation for a long period of time.
Industrial microcontrollers are also required to have communication functions compatible with industrial Ethernet. In recent years, an increasing number of industrial devices have been equipped with industrial ethernet, such as EtherCAT.
Industrial Ethernet is an industrial network that replaces data previously exchanged by analog signals with digital communication. Industrial Ethernet has the advantage of reducing wiring and facilitating effective use of data.
*Including some distributors, etc.
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OMMIC, founded in Lowell, MA, in 1950 is a manufacturer of semiconductor products for Data Center, Telecommunication and Industrial and Defense applications. The company's product portfolio includes Optical Networking Solutions, Lightwave Components, Diodes, MMICs, and SDI Products. The company serves markets including Automotive and Electric Vehicles, Renewable Energy and Energy Storage and Electronics and IT Infrastructure. They have design centers and sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia and have ISO9001 international quality standard and ISO14001 environmental management standard.
Fairview Microwave was established in 1992 in Lewisville, TX, and is a manufacturer of RF and microwave components for industrial automation, military defense, telecom-broadband, commercial electronics, and building automation industries. Its RF product catalog includes RF noise source generators, RF power dividers and tappers, RF coaxial surge protector lightning, RF connector dust caps, and RF power combiners. The company also designs bias tees, calibration kits, frequency synthesizers, impedance matching pads, and hybrid couplers. It provides cable phase matching, 3D CAD drawings, and RF cable design services.
Qualcomm, a company founded in 1985 and headquartered in San Diego, California, is a supplier of wireless telecommunication products and services. The company offers a wide range of products, including integrated circuits and system software for mobile devices and other wireless products. It also provides processors and software, to enable the development of smart devices and applications. It supports the development of 5G, 4G, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, and WCDMA mobile communications standards. The company won the "Best Mobile Processor" award at the Global Mobile Awards for its Snapdragon 888 processor. It serves various industries such as Mobile, IoT, Automotive, and more.
Incorporated in 1965, Analog Devices, Inc. designs, manufactures, tests, and markets integrated circuits (ICs), software, and subsystems that leverage analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing technologies. The company provides data converter products, power management and reference products for power conversion, driver monitoring, sequencing, and energy management applications in the automotive, communications, industrial, and high-end consumer markets. In addition, the company provides digital signal processing and system products for high-speed numeric calculations. It serves clients in the industrial, automotive, consumer, instrumentation, aerospace, and communications markets.
Silicon Labs, established in 1996 with headquarters and production and R&D facilities in the USA, is a manufacturer of electronic devices and related equipment for the home automation, industrial automation, data center, automotive, communications, healthcare, and retail markets. The company's products include microcontrollers, RF integrated circuits, intelligent sensors, USB bridges, clocks, oscillators, isolators, PoE controllers, and modems. The company offers a cloud-based software platform integrated with Silicon Labs' hardware to allow their developers and OEMs to build advanced industrial, commercial, home, and life applications that include circuit breakers, home appliances, battery-powered tools, and smart hospital equipment.
Littlefuse was founded in 1927 and headquartered in the United States. Littlefuse is a diversified industrial technology manufacturing company with customers globally. Littlefuse has products segments which are electronic, industrial, and transportation. Electronic segment products include fuses and fuse accessories, positive temperature coefficient resettable fuses, polymer electrostatic discharge suppressors, and varistors. Transportation products include blade, resettable, and high-current and high-voltage fuses, as well as battery cable protectors; fuses, switches, relays, circuit breakers, and power distribution modules. The Industrial segment offerings include contactors, transformers, and temperature sensors for use in renewable energy and energy storage systems, electric vehicle infrastructure, HVAC systems.
Microchip Technology Incorporated was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. The company is a developer and manufacturer of control solutions for global markets including the automotive, industrial, communications, human-machine interface, and connectivity industries. The company’s products include microcontrollers, field-programmable gate array products, MOSFET and radio frequency products, and both wired and wireless communications products. The company’s services include wafer foundry and assembly services, test subcontracting manufacturing services, development tools for enabling system designers to program microcontrollers and processors, and timing system products.
Rochester Electronics, LLC is a manufacturer stocking distributor of end-of-life semiconductors and the broadest range of active semiconductors that is headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and was founded in 1981. The company caters to manufacturing services ranging from design, wafer processing, testing, reliability, and IP Archiving. These specifically include OCM, build-to-order products, process flows, and standard packaging creation. The company pivots on manufacturing and distributing semiconductors that are no longer produced by its original manufacturer.
Custom Silicon Solutions, Inc., established in 1996 and headquartered in Irvine, California, is a supplier of analog, mixed-signal, and high-voltage turnkey ASICs. The company supplies high-volume semiconductor products throughout the entire product lifecycle. Its expertise includes high-voltage I/O ESD protection, MEMs interfacing, and ultra-low power designs. It provides specialized solutions for radar systems, industrial printheads, and MEM mirror arrays. Its technologies include CMOS, BCD, and SiGe, with geometries ranging from 28nm to 500nm. The company also develops 6-axis inertial motion units for navigation and stabilization, optimized MCUs for wireless metering and low-power applications.
iC-Haus GmbH, established in 1984, is a German-based manufacturer of standard and customized integrated circuits (ICs), microsystems and system-on-chip solutions used in automotive, medical and industrial applications. The company’s integrated circuit product segment consists of I/O iCs, power management iCs, sensor iCs, safety light curtain iCs, and encoder iCs. They also offer laser diode and LED drivers used in industrial sensors, laser leveling, laser printers, laser pointers, and barcode scanners. iC-Haus has a Linear Functions iCs product line which is composed of ultra-fast comparators, four-quadrant multipliers, and OPAMPs used in demodulators, signal conditioners, measurement amplifiers, and voltage-controlled amplifiers.
Dini Argeo s.r.l. is an Italian manufacturer of weighing systems and scales that was established in Fiorano Modenese in 1846. The company’s product lineup includes load cells for measuring weight by converting force into electrical signals, weight indicators for displaying the weight measured by load cells, platform bench scales, pallet truck scales, and crane scales. It also offers weight bridges for large vehicles or containers. The company’s products are commonly used by clients in the logistics, transportation, port, and shipping industries.
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation is a division of Toshiba focusing on providing designs for end-product developers as well as semiconductor and drive equipment for automotive, industrial equipment, green energy, and consumer and personal electronic devices. Toshiba’s storage products include cloud-scale and enterprise-level products, and PC hard drives. Semiconductor products include Si Cower devices, MOSFETs, IGBTs, IEGTs, isolators, solid state relays, power management and intelligent power ICs, diodes, bipolar transistors, microcontrollers, automotive devices, ICs for wireless communication equipment, general purpose logic ICs, radio-frequency devices, sensors, and linear image sensors.
NXP was established in 2006 as a spinoff from Phillips and is headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company is a co-founder of NFC communication and designs and manufactures semiconductors that serve the automotive, industrial, mobile, and smart home industries. The company’s automotive products include driver assistance transceivers, sensors, and security systems. For industrial markets, the company produces RFID readers, processors, and microcontrollers. For communication infrastructure, the company produces RF mixers, diodes, and low-noise amplifiers for wireless LAN networks. The company also produces peripherals, power management chips, communications chips, and interface devices.
Nuvoton Technology Corporation, founded in 2008 with headquarters in Taiwan, is a semiconductor manufacturer that provides foundry capabilities as a manufacturing partner to fabless or fab-lite semiconductor companies. Nuvoton Foundry FAB offers a variety of technologies, including generic logic, mixed signal (mixed Mmde), high-voltage power management components, and embedded logic non-volatile memory. The company provides customized design and manufacturing services, including multi-layer mask and multi-project wafer production services. Nuvoton Technology Corporation's products and services are also used in sensors, biochips, and TVS.
Renesas Electronics Corporation was established in 2002 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Renesas is a global research, design, and manufacturer of semiconductors used in industries spanning automotive, consumer electronics, the internet of things, power & energy, and industrial sectors. Renesas manufactures both analog and digital products. Analog products include amplifiers, audio & video devices, data converters, PLC, and switches & multiplexers. Digital products include microcontrollers, memory components, sensors, wireless connectivity products, and others. Renesas also offers design resources such as kits, development tools, partner programs, and design tools.
Acme Chip Technology Co. Ltd., founded in 2008 and based in Shenzhen, China, is a distributor of electronic components that is ISO 9001 certified. Its products include sensors, power supplies, and optical inspection equipment sourced from several manufacturers, including Advanced Linear Devices Inc., Central Semiconductor Corp., and Fluke. The company also offers a large stock of electronic components, including obsolete components and old code chips that are always available for immediate shipment.
Texas Instruments Incorporated was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Texas Instruments is a producer of high tech equipment for industrial, automotive, personal electronics, communications equipment industries. Texas Instruments designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductors to electronics designers and manufacturers in the United States and internationally. Texas Instruments operates in two segments: analog and embedded processing. The Analog segment offers power products, including battery-management solutions, DC/DC switching regulators, power switches, linear regulators, voltage references, and lighting products. The Embedded Processing segment offers microcontrollers that are used in fields such as electronic equipment and digital signal processors for mathematical computations.
Infineon Technologies AG (Infineon) is headquartered in Neubiberg, Germany. Infineon designs, develops, manufactures, and markets semiconductors and related system solutions worldwide. Infineon’s automotive segment produces microcontrollers, discrete power semiconductors, IGBT modules, industrial microcontrollers, power and radar sensor ICs, SiC diodes, MOSFETs voltage regulators, comfort electronics, infotainment, powertrain, and security products. Industrial Power Control segment provides bare dies, discrete IGBTs, and driver ICs among other components. Power & Sensor Systems segment offers gas and pressure sensors, MEMS microphone chips, control ICs, and GaN power switches among others.
Toshiba has nearly a century-and-a-half-long history of pioneering the development of electrical equipment in Japan, providing customers with products and services such as energy systems and solutions and infrastructure systems and solutions. With a focus on digital technologies, Toshiba boasts cutting-edge products in semiconductors, barcode printers, and rechargeable Lithium-ion battery cells, modules, and industrial pack series. With arms in business, R & D, AI, sustainability, and digital solutions, Toshiba and its people evolve with the times, ensuring its continuing ability to solve ever-changing social issues through constant change. By utilizing the knowledge that Toshiba has amassed across numerous business domains, along with cutting-edge technologies like IoT, AI, and quantum related technologies, they have created digital solutions that provide our customers with new value and services
HMecánica was founded in 1972 and is based in Martorell, Barcelona is a manufacturer and distributor of injector systems by hot channel, nozzles for injection machines, and thermometry. The company offers a diverse product portfolio including closing nozzles with cylinders, hermetic armored resistors, and modular temperature controllers among others. It extends services like the development of customizable equipment, repair, and maintenance. These products have applications in the pharmaceutical, automotive, and cosmetic industries.
Progressive Automations, established in 2008, is based in Richmond, Canada, and is a manufacturer and supplier of linear motion control products. The company specializes in providing a diverse range of electric actuators, lifting columns, and control systems. These products find applications in various industries, including furniture, medical equipment, automotive, and industrial automation. Progressive Automations' solutions increase motion control, automation, and ergonomic design in different settings, resulting in smoother operations and improved user experiences. The company also aims to offer effective and quality products that ensure enhanced efficiency and functionality across industries.
Richardson RFPD, based in Geneva, Illinois, is an electronic component distributor that became a subsidiary of Arrow Electronics in 2011. The company stocks products such as antennas, power supplies, and ICs, and its engineering team brings together over 600 years of combined design experience in IoT product development, wireless, and RF, making it competent from conception to production. The company is ISO 9001 certified and has three international distribution hubs in Asia, Europe, and North America. It sells products from several brands, including Advanced Thermal Solutions, Empower RF Systems Inc., and Carlisle Interconnect Technologies.
Shenzhen Shengyu Electronics Technology Ltd., founded in 2008 and headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is an electric component distributor that is ISO 9001 certified. The company stocks several components, including switches, capacitors, and resistors, which it sources from multiple manufacturers like Seiko Instruments, Inc., Renesas Electronics America, and Nuvoton Technology Corporation America. Depending on the size and configuration of the customer’s components, the company provides a full range of packaging services. It accepts single or multiple-part quotations, and its website allows customers to search hundreds of products ranging from ICs to computer accessories.
CHINA MICRO SEMICON CO., LIMITED, founded in 2001, is a Shenzhen-based IC design platform firm, designer, and supplier of digital analog mixed-signal and analog chips. The goods include chips for household appliances, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, processing chips for sensor signals, and motor & battery chips. Consumers of the chips are found in power devices, the Internet of Things, medical devices, and industrial control. The business has received awards like the 16th Shenzhen Enterprise Innovation Record Award, the Nationa High-tech Enterprise Certificate, and certificates for its intellectual property management system.
Ranking as of November 2024
Derivation MethodRank | Company | Click Share |
---|---|---|
1 | CHINA MICRO SEMICON CO.,LIMITED |
20.4%
|
2 | Kuongshun Electronic Limited |
7.4%
|
3 | NXP Semiconductors |
6.8%
|
4 | Microchip Technology Inc. |
6.2%
|
5 | Symmetry Electronics |
6.0%
|
6 | DTDS Technology Pte Ltd |
4.4%
|
7 | Fairview Microwave, Inc. |
3.7%
|
8 | VRG Components, Inc. |
3.7%
|
9 | Silicon Laboratories |
3.7%
|
10 | Nuvoton Technology Corporation |
3.5%
|
Derivation Method
The ranking is calculated based on the click share within the microcontroller (mcu's) page as of November 2024. Click share is defined as the total number of clicks for all companies during the period divided by the number of clicks for each company.Number of Employees
Newly Established Company
Company with a History
*Including some distributors, etc.
*Including some distributors, etc.
Country | Number of Companies | Share (%) |
---|---|---|
United States of America | 11 | 50.0% |
Japan | 3 | 13.6% |
China | 2 | 9.1% |
Germany | 1 | 4.5% |
Italy | 1 | 4.5% |
Netherlands | 1 | 4.5% |
Taiwan | 1 | 4.5% |
Spain | 1 | 4.5% |
Singapore | 1 | 4.5% |
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