Report

The Global NOR Flash Memory Market is expected to register a CAGR of approximately 5.8% during the period from 2022 to 2027. The market of NOR Flash memory has gained momentum in the last few years due to its diverse demanding characteristics, making it a hot topic in the embedded technology industry. With its unique attributes like low read latency and shorter initial access times than NAND Flash, NOR flash has become a crucial part of today's embedded systems industry.

Key Highlights
NOR devices can be embedded in network components like routers, switches, or gateways. The automotive industry has shown tremendous interest in NOR embedded devices due to their reliability and the nature to withstand a greater range of temperatures, making them suitable for components under the hood and on the dashboard. For instance, NOR is ideal for touchscreens, infotainment components, or advanced driver-assistance systems.
As an embedded device, NOR can be employed as code storage for any read-only applications that need fast random access and high reliability, like boot, OS, or execute-in-place code. NOR delivers quick initialization times that can benefit systems requiring fast and reliable boot processes. Additionally, programs stored on a NOR memory chip can be executed directly without requiring to be copied into RAM, an operation much more difficult with NAND.
The expanding significance of mobile devices and linked technologies, combined with the fast-increasing data-centric uses of NOR flash memories in several industrial verticals worldwide, is predicted to drive up demand for NOR flash memories.
Furthermore, high-performance NOR flash technologies enable memory hierarchy reduction, which can incorporate non-volatility in logic circuits, resulting in a new use for NOR flash memories in hardware security and neuromorphic computing. Innovative applications of NOR flash memories are predicted to be driven by increased demand from IT organizations to make computer systems safer and more efficient. As a result, it is expected that the NOR flash market will rise during the forecasted period.
On the flip side, the development of high-tech NAND flash technologies like 3D NAND flash, rise in adoption of NAND flash, high cost of R&D, and fabrication of NOR flash, supplu chain disruptions dur to COVID-19 are expected to restrict the growth of the studied market.


Key Market Trends

Rising Demand for Consumer Electronics is Anticipated to Drive the Market Demand


There is an increasing demand for lightweight, portable electronic devices with stable memory. Serial NOR has become an alternative to parallel NOR due to its space efficiency, reduced chip cost, higher pin-count, enhanced performance, and system cost. Serial NOR flash is utilized in many electronic goods like touch screens, display controllers, and AMOLED panels.
An OLED display suffers the drawbacks of luminance and color non-uniformity, and a NOR Flash could facilitate solving the problem. OLED employs organic semiconductors as the emitting material; with the addition of production discrepancies, the same-colored sub-pixels might differ in brightness levels under the same electrical signal, which causes luminance and color non-uniformity. To compensate for the non-uniformity, an external NOR Flash could be utilized to store compensation data, application programs, or firmware images. Resultantly, the growth of OLED displays elevates the growth of NOR Flashes. Further, as AMOLED (Active MatrixOrganic Light-Emitting Diode) is the prominent family of OLED, which is used in current and future smartphones, the robust demand for AMOLED would offer lucrative opportunities for the studied market.
According to US Census Bureau, In January 2022, an estimate predicted a USD 1.7 billion increase in the value of smartphones sold in the United States, bringing total sales to USD 74.7 billion. Such huge increase in the sales value will drive the NOR flash memory market
Additionally, the serial NOR flash market has grown exponentially due to increasing urbanization and technological improvements worldwide. The miniaturization of electronic devices has also significantly contributed to the growth of the market.
Several Technological innovations to by the market players are also contributing to the expansion of the market. For instance, in March 2022 , Winbond Electronics Corp., a global supplier of semiconductor memory solutions, announced the W25Q64NE, a 1.2V Splash NOR Flash IC in a 64Mb density which offers the large code storage capacity and active mode power savings required by the latest generation of the smart wearable and mobile devices.
Winbond was the first Flash memory manufacturer to familiarize a 1.2V SPI NOR Flash device, which works over an extended 1.14V-1.6V supply-voltage range for compatibility with a single alkaline AA battery cell's output-voltage profile. By extending the 1.2V NOR Flash family to include a 64Mb part, Winbond addresses the needs of smart devices with a larger code footprint. The new W25Q64NE is available for sampling and offers small package sizes like USON8-3x4 and WLCSP in industry-standard packages and pin-outs.


Asia Pacific is Expected to Register the Fastest Market Growth During the Forecast Period


The increasing penetration of electronics in automotive and automation of industrial applications is projected to improve the market growth during the forecast period. According to , International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, In 2021, China's automotive industry produced approximately 21.4 million passenger cars, followed by Japan 6.6 million such huge production of automotive will increase the demand for the NOR Flash memory products and create an opportunity for the local players to expand their customer base.
The move of the Indian government by announcing an INR 76,000 crore policy-push for semiconductor and display manufacturing is anticipated to further bolster the growth of the Asian market. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in India started receiving applications from companies to set up manufacturing fabs in India from January 2022. Such policies by the government towards semiconductor will create a opportunity for the NOR flash memory to grow in the region.
China, which is traditionally seen as the world's manufacturing factory, has spent significant effort to transform from (cheap) labor-intensive manufacturing to high-end manufacturing through the development of digitalization and industrialization. According to GSMA, China will account for one-third of the global IoT market by 2025.? Also, as per the World Bank, China's manufacturing output for 2020 was USD 3,853.81 billion, a 0.79% increase from 2019. Moreover, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in June 2021, industrial production in China increased by 8.3%. The large increase at the beginning of 2021 is mainly related to the significant drop in industrial production and the resulting low base during the same period one year ago in 2020. As per China Investment Corporation (CIC) estimates, the IIoTin China was anticipated to reach CNY 150 billion by 2020. Also, as a part of the country's 14th five-year plan, the document outlines seven major objectives aiming to promote the usage of 5G in the expansion of China's IIoT. Such developments will drive the studied market.
Following 4G, 5G is the next generation of wireless technology for digital cellular networks. 5G technology, with its fast speed, huge bandwidth (up to 10Gb/s), and ultra-low latency, could enable new applications that were previously unimaginable. NOR Flash is widely employed in wireless base stations because it meets the modern world's demand for high reliability and availability. NOR Flash, unlike NAND Flash, allows SoCs (system-on-chip devices) and FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) to boot from it directly and consistently, hence thus is frequently used to store firmware images. It's also clear to see how the rapid expansion of 5G infrastructure would increase demand for NOR Flash.
For Instance, In March 2022, Samsung Electronics has been chosen by NTT East to jointly expand the private 5G network business in Japan, assisting in the deployment of secure dedicated networks for a variety of businesses. Beginning in the second quarter of this year, Samsung and NTT East will offer commercial private 5G network services to enterprise customers. Samsung offered end-to-end 5G solutions for the technological verification, including outdoor radio units, baseband units, and the 5G SA Core, to ensure the highest levels of quality, interoperability, and stability. Samsung also employed HPE software to maintain network security.


Competitive Landscape

The NOR flash memory market is dominated by major vendors, such as Infenion, Micron Technology, GigaDeviceSemiconductor (Beijing) Inc., Winbond ElctronicsCorporation are few of them the market is moderately fragmented. As the entry barriers in the market are high, the entry of new players is difficult. The existing vendors in the market are investing heavily in the R&D of new and innovative products.


October 2021 - Alliance Memory announced an innovative line of 3V multiple input/output serial NOR flash memory products designed to offer supply continuity for Micron Technology customers using discontinued N25Q series devices. Providing support for single, dual, and quad SPI modes, the AS25F series incorporates fast read performance up to 104MHz with fast program and erase times of 0.3ms and 40ms typical, respectively.
April 2022 - Microchip announced the release of SST26LF064RT, a 64-Mbit serial quad I/O NOR flash memory device for use in harsh aerospace and defense system environments. The commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) memory technology device has a high radiation tolerance and is capable of operating in 50 kilorad (krad) Total Ionizing Dose (TID). The space-qualified second SuperFlash device from Microchip has been mainly developed to reduce development time, cost, and risk in the systems.


Additional Benefits:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
3 months of analyst support