Mobile audio IC is mainly applied to mobile phone and MP3 players. Handset audio IC can be classified into melody IC, CODEC and audio power system IC; MP3 system IC often refers to MP3 decoding IC and CODEC.

Seldom adopted in global leading handset manufacturers i.e. Nokia, MOTO, Sony Ericsson or Benq-Siemens, Melody IC seems to have a rather gloomy market. Especially after 2005, the above four manufacturers generally introduce application processor and custom analog baseband to get chord function. Major Melody IC clients are Samsung, LG and some Chinese manufacturers, most of which appear a gradually declining market share. Take Samsung for example, its market share has decreased by almost 10%. Also Chinese manufacturers are performing so awkwardly that even the sales volume of ``black market handsets`` is decreasing. Along with the development of semiconductor techniques, it will be much easier to integrate mixed signal to logic chips by pure CMOS techniques. Integrated chord SoC will become the main trend of the future. More and more melody IC suppliers appear in the market these years. Yamaha is the first in this field and for a time is the exclusive leading supplier. Later, its market is half-shared by OKI and then Vimicro rises suddenly. Fangtek is also striving to share in this field. The dramatically decreasing price of melody IC leads to a rather small profit margin, putting melody IC manufacturer into a dilemma. Yamaha, the only melody IC supplier of Samsung, also has to lower the price to maintain the bilateral business relationship. The profit of Yamaha metal semiconductor sector declines from 20 billion Yen in 2004 to 7.9 billion Yen now despite the big increase in shipments. OKI also suffers sharp decrease of 75% in its profit. Melody IC manufacturers have no choice but to change their business modes, yet which does not simply mean to add chord function to MP3 players because most basebands support MP3 Playing. In stead, melody IC manufacturers should develop towards the multimedia application processor field.

Only a few Audio CODEC manufactures are available in the market, namely TI, AKM and Wolfson. With a strict and high threshold to the CODEC field, only few manufacturers proficient in DELTA-SIGMA conversion can have a place in this field. What's more, audio CODEC is mostly likely to be applied with a great amount in compression music players especially MP3 players and digital cameras. In contrast, the application to handsets is only a by-line that may earn a little more but doesn't matter much if not. Audio CODEC also shares only a small market. It is unlikely that Nokia, MOTO, Sony Ericsson and Siemens take audio CODEC; they integrate audio CODEC function to baseband or application processor instead. Only Samsung, LG and Chinese manufacturers that lack custom baseband IC capability prefer to choose audio CODEC in handsets when sound quality is especially pursued, so the market demands of audio CODEC are even fewer than that of melody IC.

Now more and more independent audio system IC handsets can be found in the market. Before these audio systems were mostly integrated into analog baseband. Reasons listed below may contribute the appearance of independent audio system IC: Firstly, music handsets, MP4 handsets and TV handsets usually affix one or two small speakers for convenient browse or listen. Large output power is needed to drive these two speakers while the drive capacity of the audio systems integrated into baseband is usually not so good; however, shipments of this kind of handsets keep on increasing. Secondly, high sound quality handsets are launched into the market in large quantity, but the audio systems that are integrated into baseband are universally poor in sound quality. In 2005, about 75% of Nokia's handsets and about 70% of Samsung's handsets adopted independent audio system IC, while MOTO and Sony Ericsson much less.

Audio systems, especially Class-AB audio systems set an even higher threshold. National Semiconductor absolutely takes the unshakeable place of No.1 in the audio field; even strong powers like TI cannot compete with it. National Semiconductor thrives for thirty years in manufacturing handset audio systems and is extremely adept at controlling price performance. Its abundant product varieties extend to as many as 60 which can meet all kinds of demands and meanwhile offer a strong technological support.

Almost all other manufacturers avoid direct competition against National Semiconductor, who is considered as the superpower of class AB audio system field. They take products class D as their first choice instead, especially TI, trying to impact somehow on Notional Semiconductor by this means.

It is forecasted that products class-D will not take the mainstream in the next four or five years. Reasons are as follows: firstly, class-D has an advantage of higher efficiency,but this is not so distinct. i.e. class-D has a 15%-20% higher efficiency compared to class AB in terms of middle output power.

Secondly, audio amplifier system of class D generally has a higher price level than class AB. On average, the price of former is USD0.6-1.5. The less distortion, the higher price; While in contrast, the price of the latter is no more than USD0.5

The third is the poor sound quality, which is usually evaluated by the audience. Less distortion doesn't possibly mean high sound quality. Even though class-D can achieve the lowest distortion yet can not compete with class-AB on sound quality. That is because class-D generates a large amount of high frequency harmonic wave, which can not be heard by human beings in principle but inevitably affects our hearing, making the sound less popular.


The last is the electromagnetic interference. The high frequency harmonic wave from the class-D may influence part of the handset RF or the antenna thus lowers the sensitivity to signals even makes them unable to work. The above mentioned problems may be easily settled except for the third one, which is almost fatal.

1. Brief Introduction to Mobile Audio IC
1.1 The Mobile Audio IC Market and a Survey of the Industry
1.2 Brief Introduction to Chord IC
1.3 Brief Introduction to Handset CODEC
1.4 The Global Music Handset Market
1.5 China's Music Handset Market

2. Handset Audio IC Manufacturers
2.1 Fangtek
2.2 Medeli Microelectronics
2.3 Yamaha
2.4 OKI
2.5 NEC
2.6 ROHM
2.7 Wolfson Microelectronics
2.8 AKM
2.9 TI
2.10 Vimicro
2.11 Winbond

3. MP3 Player Audio IC Market
3.1 The Global MP3 Player Market
3.2 China's MP3 Player Market
3.3 MP3 Player IC Market and Industry

4. Leading MP3 Decoding Chip Manufacturers
4.1 Actions
4.2 Sigmatel
4.3 PortalPlayer
4.4 Telechips
4.5 Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics
4.6 Atmel
4.7 ETO
4.8 T-square Electronics
4.9 Sunplus
4.10 AtChip
4.11 MosArt
4.12 Philips

5. Mobile Audio System IC
5.1 Mobile Audio System IC Market
5.2 Mobile Audio System IC Industry
5.3 Brief Introduction to Class-D Audio Systems
5.4 Shortcomings of Class-D Audio Systems and the Solutions
5.4.1 Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
5.4.2 Distortion Improvement
5.4.3 Improving the Frequency Response Range and Incidental Distortion
5.4.4 Strong Inductance and Capacitance of LPF at the Output Port
5.4.5 High Requirement on Power Supply
5.5 Cases of Handset Audio System IC

6. Mobile Audio System IC Manufacturers
6.1 Yamaha
6.2 TI
6.3 National Semiconductor
6.4 Maxim
6.5 ON Semiconductor
6.6 Analog Devices

Internal Framework of Yamaha YMU765
Forecast of Global Melody IC Market Scale, 2005-2010
Market Shares of Leading Melody IC Manufacturers Worldwide, 2005
Audio System in High Sound Quality Handsets
Internal Framework of Wolfson WM8960
Shipment Forecast of World MP3 2004-2009
Shipment Forecast of World Enhanced Music Handset 2005-2009
Market Share Forecast of Enhanced Music Handset Manufacturer 2006
China's MP3, MP4 Handset Shipment 2005(by Quarter)
China's MP3, MP4 Handset Shipment 2005-2010
China's MP3 Handset Shipment 2005-2010
China's MP4 Handset Shipment 2005-2010
Product Roadmap of Fangtek
Basic Framework of Fangtek Products
Internal Framework of FT1960N
Revenue Structure of Yamaha, FY 2006
Profit Structure of Yamaha, 2006
Statistics on Revenue and Profit of Yamaha Electronic Component and Metal Product Sector, FY2004-2006
Internal Framework of YMU762
Internal Framework of Yamaha YMU765
Internal Framework of YMU782
Kernel Diagram of YMU782
Revenue Structure of OKI, FY 2005-2006
Internal Framework of UPD9971
Internal Framework of UPD9996
Internal Framework of UPD9995
Internal Framework of UPD9993
Internal Framework of UPD9992
Statistics on Revenue and Operation Profit of Wolfson, 2002-2005
Cash Flow Statistics of Wolfson, 2002-2005
Gross Profit and Cost Structure of Wolfson, 2002-2005
Statistics on Revenue and Operation Profit of Wolfson, 2002H1-2005H2
Revenue Structure of Wolfson, 2005
Typical Application Diagram of WM9713
Internal Framework of WM9713
Internal Framework of WM8955
Internal Framework of WM8985
Typical Application Diagram of WM8955
Internal Framework of WM8960
Internal Framework of AK4642
Internal Framework of TLV320AIC23
Statistics on Revenue and Gross Profit Margin of Winbond, 2005Q1-2006Q2
Statistics on Revenue and Gross Profit Margin of Winbond’s Memory and Logic Products, 2005Q1-2006Q2
Product Structure of Winbond, 2006Q2
Sales Volume Statistics and Forecast of Portable Digital Music Players Worldwide, 2002-2009
Statistics and Forecast of Market Scale Portable Digital Music Players Worldwide, 2003-2010
Sales Volume Statistics of Apple iPod, 2001Q4-2006Q1
Market Share of MP3 Players in China, 2006Q1
Market Share of China's Leading MP4 Player Manufacturers, 2006Q1
Global Market Share Statistics of MP3 Player Chips (by Shipment), 2005
Global Market Share Forecast of MP3 Player Chips (by Shipment), 2006
Market Share Statistics of Leading Portable Music Player Manufacturers (by Sales Volume), 2005
Market Share Forecast of Leading Portable Music Player Manufacturers (by Sales Volume), 2006
Structure of Companies Associated with Actions
Upstream and Downstream Partners of Actions
Product Roadmap of Actions
Classification of Actions Products
Major Products of Action
Internal Framework of ATJ2075
Internal Framework of ATJ2085
Internal Framework of ATJ2097
Statistics on Revenue of Sigmatel, 2002-2005
Statistical on Gross Profit of Sigmatel, 2002-2005
Regional Distribution of Sigmatel Revenue, 2006Q1
Audio CODEC Roadmap of Sigmatel
PMP Soc Roadmap of Sigmatel
Roadmap of Sigmatel Hard Disk Decoding Video SoC
Roadmap of Sigmatel Wireless Connection Field
Roadmap of Sigmatel TV Audio Field
Roadmap of Sigmatel Class-D Audio Systems
Roadmap of Sigmatel Digital Video Market
Internal Framework of PP5024
Internal Framework of PP5022
Statistics on Quarterly Income of Atmel, 2003Q1-2006Q1
Statistics on Quarterly Gross Profit of Atmel, 2003Q1-2006Q1
Product Structure of Atmel, 2006Q1
Internal Framework of AT85C51SND3
Typical Application Diagram of AT85C51SND3
Internal Framework of AT89C51SND2C
Internal Framework of AT83SND2CMP3
Statistics on Revenue of Sunplus, 2002-2007
Statistics on Profit of Sunplus, 2002-2007
Statistics Gross Profit of Sunplus, 2002-2007
Stock Prices and Sales Volume Tends of Sunplus, Mar 2003-Mar 2006
Product Route of AT Chip
Internal Framework of SAA 7750
Mobile Audio Amplifier System IC Market
Market Scale Forecast of Mobile Audio Amplifier System IC, 2005-2010
Mobile Audio Amplifier System IC Industry
Market Share of Major Mobile Audio Amplifier System IC Manufacturer
Efficiency Comparison between Class-D Audio Systems and Class-AB Audio Systems
?-S Modulator
Typical LPF Circuit of Class-D Audio Systems
Distribution of Yamaha Class-D
Differences between Yamaha Pure Impulse Speaker Driving Circuit and Class-D Amplifier System
Difference between Yamaha Pure Impulse Speaker Driving Circuit and Decreasing Filter Class-D Amplifier System
Internal Mode of Yamaha YDA131 (D-1)
Circuit Application Example of Yamaha YDA131 (D-1)
Distortion Comparison between YDA139 and Other No-filter Class-D Amplifier System
Figure: Efficiency Comparison between YDA 139 and Other Class-D Amplifier system
Growth Rate of TI Analog, DSP and Others, 2002-2004
Revenue of National Semiconductor in Five Consecutive Quarters
Gross Profit Margin of National Semiconductor in 36 Consecutive Years
Business Performance of Maxim, 2001-2006Q1
R&D Expenditure Changes of Maxim, 2003-2006Q1
Regional Distribution of Maxim's R&D Expenditure, 2003-2006Q1
Internal Framework of ON Semiconductor NCP2820
Utilization of Nokia Handset Application Processors
Utilization Cases of Common Audio CODEC
Utilization Cases of YMU762
Utilization Cases of YMU765
Some Handsets Adopting ROHM Sound Source Chips
Audio Products of Vimicro
Melody IC products of Winbond
Audio Player Products of Sigmatel
Production Properties of TCC77X Series
MP3 Chip of Mosart Conductor
Cases of 74 Handset Audio Systems IC
IC property Overview of Common Handset Audio Amplifier System Class-AB
IC property Overview of Common Handset Audio Amplifier System Class-D
Brief Introduction of Yamaha
Single Chip Class-D Systems of Yamaha
Class-D System Control IC of Yamaha
Feature Comparison between Class-D Systems of Yamaha and Other Companies
Applications of Yamaha Class-D System Products
Class-D Audio System Products of TI
Class-D Audio System Products of Maxim
Class-D System Products of ON Semiconductor