DATE: Sep 17 2025 / SOURCE: Yicai
(Yicai) Sept. 17 -- Domestically made analog chips are already being widely used in China’s home-appliance sector, distributors, analysts, and experts said after the country launched an anti-dumping investigation into non-digital semiconductors from the United States.
About 90 percent of analog chips used in China's home appliances industry, including operational amplifier, comparator, and power-supply chips, are produced at home, Chen Jianmin, founding director of the Reliability Research Institute at Xi’an University of Technology, told Yicai. If digital and power semiconductors are included, the rate is around 70 percent to 80 percent, he noted.
Analog chips are widely used in microphones, laptop computers, and smartphones. On Sept. 13, China's commerce ministry launched an anti-dumping investigation into those imported from the United States. If the investigation determines that American chips are being sold at unfairly low prices, then anti-dumping duties may follow.
The investigation is expected to hasten the localization process for chips used in home appliances, according to Xu Hong, a senior advisor at the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute.
Chinese analog chips have reached a level where they can reliably power standard home appliances, and major manufacturers already have backup plans to switch to local suppliers, one distributor pointed out.
For example, domestic chips now account for at least 60 percent of those on outdoor inverter control boards for big-ticket items such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, while small appliances have gone fully native, the person added.
Although there are still a few imported operational amplifiers and power supply chips, Chinese semiconductors offer better prices, the distributor noted, but added that "domestic chipmakers can still improve their technological sophistication.”
Chen also believes there is still room for improvement in product reliability. He expects that as products move up-market, Chinese analog chip producers will enter a new phase of ‘survival of the fittest.’