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Inductors are components that can convert electrical energy into magnetic energy and store it. Inductors are similar in structure to transformers, but have only one winding. Inductor has a certain inductance, which only blocks the change of current. To sum up, 5G mobile phones are updated and iterated, ushering in a replacement cycle, and the demand for inductors continues to increase.

Concept of Inductor

Inductors are components that can convert electrical energy into magnetic energy and store it. Inductors are similar in structure to transformers,  but have only one winding. Inductors have a certain inductance, which only blocks the change of current. If the inductor is in a state where no current flows, it will try to block the current flowing through it when the circuit is connected. If the inductor is in the state of current flow, it will try to maintain the current unchanged when the circuit is disconnected .

 Inductors are also called chokes, reactors and dynamic reactors. Inductor is generally composed of framework, winding, shielding cover, packaging material, magnetic core or iron core, etc. Inductance is the ratio of the magnetic flux of the conductor to the current producing the alternating magnetic flux around the conductor when the conductor passes through the alternating current.

When DC current flows through the inductor, only a fixed magnetic line of force appears around it, which does not change with time.  However, when the alternating current passes through the coil, the magnetic field lines around it will change with time.  According to Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction – magnetism generates electricity, the changed magnetic lines of force will generate induction potential at both ends of the coil, which is equivalent to a “new power source”.

Inductors are divided into self inductors and mutual inductors. When there is current in the coil, magnetic fields will be generated around the coil.

 When the current in the coil changes, the magnetic field around it will also change accordingly.   This changed magnetic field can make the coil itself generate induced electromotive force (induced electromotive force) (the electromotive force is used to represent the terminal voltage of the ideal power supply of the active element), which is called self induction.

When two inductance coils are close to each other, the magnetic field change of one inductance coil will affect the other inductance coil, which is called mutual inductance. The size of mutual inductor depends on the degree of coupling between the self inductance of the inductance coil and the two inductance coils. The components made by using this principle are called mutual inductor.

Market development status of inductor industry

Chip inductors are classified by inductor structure. According to the classification of structure and manufacturing process, inductors are divided into two categories: plug-in solid inductors and chip mounted inductors. The main manufacturing technology of traditional plug-in inductors is “winding”, that is, the conductor is wound on the magnetic core to form an inductive coil (also known as a hollow coil).

This inductor is characterized by a wide range of inductance, high accuracy of inductance value, large power, small loss, simple manufacturing, short production cycle, and sufficient supply of raw materials. Its disadvantages are low degree of automatic production, high production cost, and difficulty in miniaturization and lightweight.

The China Electronics Industry Association estimates that the global inductor market will grow by 7.5% annually in the next few years, China is a big consumer of inductance devices. With the rapid change of China’s communication technology and the large-scale construction of the Internet of Things, smart cities and other related industries, China’s chip inductor market will grow faster than the global growth rate. If the growth rate is 10%, the market size of chip inductor industry will exceed 18 billion yuan. According to the data, the global inductor market size in 2019 was 48.64 billion yuan, up 0.1% year on year from 48.16 billion yuan in 2018; In 2020, due to the impact of the global COVID-19, the market size of inductors will decline to 44.54 billion yuan. The scale of China’s inductor market express development. In 2019, the scale of China’s inductor market was about RMB 16.04 billion, an increase of 13% compared with RMB 14.19 billion in 2018. In 2019, China’s inductor sales revenue increased year by year, from 8.136 billion yuan in 2014 to 17.045 billion yuan in 2019.

 It is expected that the market demand for inductors will become larger and larger, and the domestic market will be broader. In 2019, China exported 73.378 billion inductors and imported 178.983 billion inductors, 2.4 times the export volume.

 In 2019, the export value of China’s inductors was US $2.898 billion and the import value was US $2.752 billion.

China’s consumer electronics industry chain has experienced a rising transformation from the production of low value-added parts, OEM for foreign terminal brands to the entry of high value-added production links, and domestic terminal brands have become the world’s leading brands. At present, China’s smartphone production accounts for 70% or 80% of the world’s total, and Chinese enterprises dominate the middle and later stages of the global consumer electronics industry chain, assembly and other fields, Therefore, under the industrial consensus of “automobile is like a big mobile phone” and the background that consumer electronics industry chain enterprises have deployed in the field of smart cars, the prospect of domestic consumer electronics industry chain in the future is worth looking forward to.

The increase in the number of 5G mobile phone frequency bands has greatly boosted the use of single unit inductors. The world’s high-frequency inductors are facing a large capacity gap and tight supply. To sum up, the replacement of 5G mobile phones ushered in a replacement cycle. The demand for inductance continued to increase. The epidemic led to the withdrawal of other inductance giants. Domestic alternatives opened up space.