SAN FRANCISCO—Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp. remained the dominant supplier of microcontrollers in 2011, despite fallout from the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck last March and wreaked havoc on the company's production capabilities for several months, according to market research firm Databeans Inc.
Renesas (Tokyo) logged microcontroller sales of $2.62 billion in 2011, down about 1 percent from 2010, according to
Databeans (Reno, Nev.). Renesas' microcontroller market share slipped to 17.3 percent in 2011 from 17.9 percent in 2010, but remained significantly higher than second-ranked Freescale Semiconductor Inc., which increased its MCU market share to 10.1 percent in 2011 from 10 percent in 2010, according to Databeans.
The most notable improvement in the microcontroller rankings in 2011 came from Atmel Corp., which climbed to No. 3 from No. 5 with an increase in microcontroller revenue of 25 percent, according to Databeans estimates. Atmel is engaged in the growing touch screen controller market, which is experiencing growing demand among smartphone suppliers and other consumer segments as well as the computer market, Databeans said. Overall competition in touch screen controllers from Atmel, Microchip Technology Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG has become very close—with less than 1 percent seperating the three firms, according to Databeans.
