From June 28th to 29th, the 2024 8th Jiwei Semiconductor Conference with the theme of "Crossing Boundaries and New Quality Future" was held in Xiamen International Conference Center Hotel. As one of the core links of the 8th Jiwei Semiconductor Conference in 2024, the Jiwei General Chip Industry Application Conference kicked off at the same time.
How to overcome difficulties in the field of general-purpose chips and accelerate the implementation in emerging application fields has always been the direction that the domestic semiconductor industry is diligently pursuing. With the theme of "Returning to the Original Intention and Creating Extraordinary Chips", the conference aims to strengthen the spirit of industrial cooperation and promote the surging development of the general chip industry, so as to jointly respond to future opportunities and challenges. High-level representatives of many manufacturers also came forward to analyze the current situation and development of the high-end chip industry, and explore new insights and new paths for the landing of the high-end chip industry.
Guangzhou Huizhiwei: RF front-end solutions enable a new era of wireless communication
Peng Yangyang, vice president of marketing of Guangzhou Huizhi Microelectronics Co., Ltd., said in his speech on the theme of "RF Front-end Full Series Solutions: Empowering a New Era of Wireless Communication" that RF front-end is the core component of wireless communication, and the arrangement and combination of power amplifiers, filters, low-noise amplifiers and switches constitute a complex design. At present, in addition to the traditional track, the 5.5G, L-PAMiD, and Wi-Fi markets have brought new opportunities to the RF front-end market.
As 5.5G brings new changes to the user experience in terms of peak rate, user experience rate and latency, Peng Yangyang pointed out that n79 will become the key frequency band. In order to facilitate the implementation of 5.5G, Wisdom Micro has developed the N77(78)/79 solution, which is 40% smaller than the traditional solution, provides the standard size of the 3x5mm2 single-band solution, and is compatible with the N77(78) single-band solution.
As the culmination of the RF front-end, L-PAMiD is also the most difficult RF front-end module to design. To this end, Wisdom Micro continues to tackle tough problems and launches the industry-leading Phase8L solution, which achieves a high level of integration at the product level, supports LMH 4G/5G frequency band and 2G frequency band, and has a self-shielding function. In terms of performance, basic performance such as power and current, as well as key system performance such as harmonic interference processing, are better.
With the rapid growth of the Wi-Fi advanced communication standard market, Peng Yangyang also mentioned that whether it is Wi-Fi 5 in the stock market or Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 in the incremental market, Huizhiwei strives to launch a high-performance Wi-Fi FEM series of comprehensive solutions for routers, handheld terminals and other application fields.
Weijing Technology: The domestic intelligent driving solution should focus on the development of modular architecture
In the era of computing power, how to develop chips with both large computing power and high performance and fast market seems to be a problem of "it is difficult to have both fish and bear's paws". Zhao Minjun, vice president of operations of Shanghai Weijing Technology Co., Ltd., gave a speech from the perspective of "Challenges and Development of Chip Design in the Context of Rational Computing Power". Zhao Minjun analyzed that with the popularization of intelligent driving, there is a need for more cost-effective intelligent driving solutions. Judging from the trend, in the next five years, intelligent driving will quickly sink to less than 200,000 models, and become the standard configuration of all models. Moreover, Tesla's new-generation intelligent driving solution will further challenge the intelligent driving ability of domestic manufacturers on models below 200,000 yuan. However, the domestic development of cost-effective chips faces problems such as high cost, low utilization of computing resources, high power consumption, and difficult engineering, and it also needs to focus on solving many challenges such as computing power, bandwidth, power consumption and security.
To this end, Zhao Minjun further called for the end-to-end large model architecture is the future direction of the development of intelligent driving technology, but there are few domestic full-stack development with similar strength as Tesla, and the modular and end-to-end large models will coexist in the next five years or even longer, forming a pattern of long-term coexistence of low-end and high-end intelligent driving models. At present, the reasonable industrial model in China still focuses on the development of modular architecture, and each exhibition cooperates with each other to accelerate catch-up and transcendence through in-depth cooperation in the industrial chain.
Weijing Technology, which has been focusing on the R&D and innovation of high-end intelligent perception SoCs, is also advancing in multiple ways in terms of intelligent driving solutions. Zhao Minjun introduced the VS919 integrated domain control chip for driving and parking of the Jingyuxing series, which integrates five advantages: high computing efficiency, high integration, high security, low power consumption and low latency, which can carry out all-round coverage and full-scene applications, and help the mass production of intelligent driving products.
He also emphasized that the five-year strategy of Weijing Intelligent Driving Chip is to build AI processing engine technology + cost-effective intelligent driving chip, natively support Transformer framework, and efficiently support modular algorithm models and end-to-end large models. In addition, we will continue to expand the circle of friends and meet the requirements of vehicle regulation certification, and continue to build the "cornerstone" of intelligent driving, and comprehensively build a domestically independent, leading, reliable and open intelligent driving computing platform.
Yutai Micro: Focus on improving the localization rate of automotive Ethernet and SerDes
In the evolution theme of "High-speed Wired Communication Chip Solutions for New Energy Vehicles", Hao Shilong, general manager of the Vehicle Business Department of Yutai Microelectronics Co., Ltd., showed with detailed data that China's new energy vehicle market is developing rapidly, and China's new energy vehicle sales will account for more than 60% of the world's sales in 2023, with a domestic penetration rate of 35%, and it is expected to grow by 25% year-on-year this year. This has brought a huge incremental demand for automotive chips, with an average of 1,700 chips for a new energy vehicle, worth 20,000 yuan. In terms of the localization rate of nine categories of automotive chips, such as computing, control, storage, communication, power, power supply, sensor drive and information security, the localization rate of communication chips is only 5%~10%, and the gap is obvious.
From the perspective of demand trend, the in-depth development of intelligent driving is also promoting the rapid development of on-board high-speed wired communication chips, involving Ethernet and on-board SerDes.
Hao Shilong said that with the increase in the penetration rate of smart cars and the multiple increase in the network speed requirements of automobiles (100 megabits are being replaced by gigabits, and gigabit will be replaced by 2.5G/5G/10G), as well as the progress of E/E architecture, the demand for Ethernet node chips will also increase in the future. In the future, the number of Ethernet ports for smart cars will increase from about 10 to more than 100, and the number of Ethernet ports installed in L4/L5 autonomous vehicles will increase to 80-120. Moreover, the global demand for automotive SerDes will also reach 1.59 billion US dollars in 2025, and there is huge room for improvement in localized chips.
Yutai Micro, which has been deeply engaged in the field of high-speed wired communication chips, has been deeply involved in the comprehensive layout of high-speed wired communication chips, following the successful launch of automotive 100 Gigabit and Gigabit Ethernet chips, Hao Shilong introduced that breakthroughs have been made in the field of camera video SerDes chips recently, and the data of the test samples have reached the expected design goals, which have been recognized by many customers, and further cooperation will be carried out in the future. In addition, the screen and audio SerDes are in the product pre-research. In the future, we hope to become the most reliable strategic partner of high-speed wired communication chips for automotive customers with the help of the wave of intelligent networking.
SmartSens: The all-round CIS meets the needs of three major automotive intelligent vision applications
As a CMOS image sensor company committed to providing multi-scenario applications and full-performance coverage, SmartSens products have covered the full-performance requirements of multi-scenario applications such as security monitoring, machine vision, intelligent vehicle electronics, and smart phones, and have also achieved good results in the market.
With the rapid momentum of intelligent vehicles, China's electric vehicle sales account for "half of the country", and the global automotive CIS market scale has also increased significantly. Shao Ke, Vice President of the Automotive Chip Department of SmartSens (Shanghai) Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., mentioned in his speech on the theme of "High-performance CIS and End-to-End Perception Solutions to Help In-Vehicle Intelligent Vision Applications" that SmartSens is also making every effort to deploy and empower the three major in-vehicle intelligent vision applications with CIS.
Shao Ke believes that the three major in-vehicle intelligent vision applications involve one is the in-vehicle imaging application, including rear-view/automatic parking, 360° surround view and streaming media; The second is the application of in-vehicle perception ADAS. The third is for in-cabin applications, including DMS, OMS, DVR. Overall, the number of smart car single car cameras is as high as 15.
Shao Ke pointed out that the key points of automotive-grade CIS performance involve night vision full color, high dynamic range, global shutter technology, LED flicker suppression, and high-temperature stability. Through the accumulation of patented technology, architecture breakthroughs, process optimization and other technical breakthroughs, SmartSens can fully meet the above stringent performance requirements. At present, SmartSens' automotive-grade CIS SmartSens AT Series has included 3 imaging applications, 3 ADAS applications, and 9 cabin applications, covering in-cabin, out-of-cabin, surround view, and ADAS, with a resolution of 1 million pixels to 8 million pixels, and has established close cooperation with more than 80% of vehicle manufacturers.
Xinlai: Create RISC-V IP2.0 mode to reduce SoC design costs
In the field of processor instruction set architecture, RISC-V has formed a three-way trend with ARM and X86. Compared with ARM and X86, the biggest advantage and feature of RISC-V is its openness. Hu Zhenbo, founder of Xinlai Zhirong Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., pointed out in his speech "RISC-V IP 2.0 Model, Reducing SoC Design Cost" that the ecological pattern under the open standard will be a business format where "self-development", "open source" and "neutral solution provider" coexist, which is the inevitable result of professional division of labor and economic model, which can bring maximum economic benefits to the industry. Xinlai chooses to be a neutral solution provider and only outputs solutions.
Since its establishment, Xinlai has been moving forward steadily year by year, releasing a series of RISC-V IP products and building a complete RISC-V IP product line. The 1000 series released this year focuses on high performance, and its application scenarios are suitable for high-performance autonomous driving, communication networks, data centers, and artificial intelligence. The 300 series, which is used in IoT, MCU, and industrial control, is the product line with the largest number of customers. The NA900 series is the first IP product in the world to obtain ISO26262 ASIL-D product certification under the RISC-V architecture.
In order to solve many pain points in the traditional CPU IP licensing model and local SoC design field, Silicon Technology has launched the RISC-V IP "Chip-on-Chip" mode and subsystem solution. Hu Zhenbo mentioned that the "Sui Xin Package" model can transform the traditional per-project authorization into a subscription model, greatly reducing the licensing cost and authorization process of CPU IP, and providing customers with great convenience and flexibility. During the subscription period, customers can use the IP in the core package for unlimited times, and can also choose the subscription content according to their own needs, and enjoy real-time IP features and tool chain upgrades and technical support during the subscription period. In addition, Xinlai has also launched a customized vertical application subsystem IP solution for AI, HSM and automotive specifications, which can solve 80% of the common problems of customers, greatly reduce the workload and cost of SoC front-end design, and accelerate development and time-to-market.
Hu Zhenbo refers to the CPU IP chipping and subsystem solution as the RISC-V IP2.0 model. He concluded that by greatly reducing the licensing cost of CPU IP and greatly reducing the energy and cost of SoC front-end, Xinlai helps local design companies complete the licensing process of CPU IP more efficiently, accelerates the product listing process of local chip design enterprises, and empowers the upgrading of the local integrated circuit industry.
Xiamen Youxun: The new trend of high-speed optical communication electronic chips poses new challenges
Benefiting from gigabit access and data center construction, the optical communication industry has ushered in vigorous development. Chen Zhe, deputy general manager of Xiamen Youxun Chip Co., Ltd., mentioned in his speech on "Development Trend of High-speed Optical Communication Electrical Chip Technology" that 5G deployment, fiber-to-the-home speed, data center construction, and bearer network upgrades will continue to drive the demand for optical modules, and the global optical module market is expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 16%.
Focusing on PON networks, Chen Zhe analyzed that a large number of 50G PON pilots and commercial deployments will start in 2024, 50G PON will enter the initial stage of commercial use from 2024 to 2025, and 50G PON will enter the stage of large-scale commercial use around 2027. In terms of technology, it is necessary to solve the challenges of adopting a fast AGC architecture, the need for fast response for LOS/SD signals, and the improvement of reception sensitivity for burst reception of 25G and above.
Regarding the market opportunities of coherent modules, Chen Zhe mentioned that with the increase of single-channel transmission rate, coherent technology has sunk from the past backbone network to the metro area and even the edge access network. On the other hand, in the field of data communication, coherent technology has also become the mainstream solution of inter-data center interconnection (DCI). The requirements for ICs lie in higher bandwidth, better linearity, and larger output swing, and the trend is to use silicon photonics technology for packaging, and electrical chips need to be designed as a whole with optical chips and modules.
With the construction boom of data centers due to applications such as high-definition video, VR/AR, big data, cloud computing, and AI, Chen Zhe pointed out that the interconnection of data centers inside and outside has given rise to massive demand for 100G/400G/800G optical modules and chips. In addition, the bandwidth required for AI data training and transmission is more than twice that of ordinary data centers, increasing the demand for high-speed optical modules. The requirements for optical modules and electrical chips in data centers are high speed, low power consumption, low cost, and miniaturization.
The development of a new generation of vehicle-mounted optical communication vehicle-grade electrical chips has also emerged. Chen Zhe believes that it is expected that by 2030, the electronic and electrical architecture will evolve into a central computing platform + regional access, using a large-bandwidth on-board communication computing and communication architecture, and the trend of "optical and copper retreat" in the in-vehicle interconnection is obvious. The key technical requirements of in-vehicle communication include high-speed and large-bandwidth copper cables and optical communications, 10G~100G Ethernet networks, EMC anti-interference capabilities, us-level deterministic latency, and highly reliable TSN networks.
As a leading enterprise in the domestic optical communication chip industry, Xiamen Youxun has provided high-speed transceiver chip solutions for optical modules with a rate of 155Mbps ~ 400Gbps such as QSFP-DD, QSFP56, QSFP28, SFP28, SFP+ and so on. It has a complete test and verification development platform from the chip level, device level, module level, and terminal level system level; For the 5G and F5G optical communication markets, it has launched 25G ~100G and 1.25G ~ 50G PON optical transceiver chip solutions; Launched 100G~400G complete optical transceiver chip solutions for the data center market, with a cumulative shipment of more than 1.5 billion chips. Facing the future upgrade needs of optical communication, Chen Zhe bluntly said that he will continue to optimize and iterate, and is committed to realizing the Chinese "core" of optical communication.
JW Insights: The share of domestic automotive-grade MCUs is expected to reach 15% in 2027
After experiencing a trough in 2023, the global MCU market will stabilize in 2024, with a year-on-year increase of about 2.5% to about $25 billion, and maintain a low growth trend in the following years. Zhao Yi, deputy general manager of JW Insights, said in his speech that the global MCU market is expected to reach $32 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of about 5.7% from 2023 to 2028. Automotive, industrial, and other sectors will be the main drivers driving the growth of the MCU market size, with the automotive and industrial sectors reaching a CAGR of more than 6.3% from 2023 to 2028.
The trend of vehicle electrification, intelligence, and changes in electronic and electrical architecture will bring incremental space and technology development momentum to the automotive MCU market. According to Zhao Yi's analysis, from the perspective of digits, the focus of future automotive MCU development is basically 32-bit MCU and 64-bit MCU in the research and development stage. In terms of cockpit domain, smart cars need MCUs to support the equipment and function improvement of infotainment systems. In the autonomous driving domain, the demand for functional MCUs will increase in the short term, and in the long term, ADAS above the L3 level will need to replace functional MCUs with master control SoCs to achieve centralized architecture, and the number of MCUs may gradually decline.
From the perspective of the market structure, the automotive-grade MCU market as a whole is occupied by overseas leading enterprises, and domestic enterprises have achieved partial breakthroughs, but they still need to invest in R&D and break technical barriers in high-end products, and the domestic automotive-grade MCU industry as a whole is still in the introduction period.
Infineon, Renesas, and NXP account for the top three in China's automotive MCU market, with a combined share of 67%. China's local manufacturers such as BYD Semiconductor, Xinwang Micro, Jiefa Technology, Yuntu, and Xinchi are in a leading position among domestic manufacturers, but the overall share is still low, about 6% according to the sales amount. It is estimated that by 2027, the share of domestic manufacturers is expected to reach 15%.
In this regard, Zhao Yi suggested that domestic manufacturers should start from the subdivision field to enhance the differentiated competitive advantage of products; Driven by timeliness and price, we will start from the special field to enter the industry customers; Cooperate with foundries and packaging and testing factories to continuously improve product performance, stability and consistency; Improve supply chain management, implement scientific inventory allocation, and achieve effective supply and accurate service in terms of channels; Strengthen the construction of the ecological chain, strengthen cooperation with third-party software companies, and create an independent and controllable embedded system ecological environment.
The forum also held a roundtable interactive discussion with the theme of "Innovation and Integration: Shaping the New Ecology of the Chip Design Industry". Xu Yinchuan, Managing Director of Light Source Capital, moderated a roundtable discussion on the topic of innovation. Wang Jianzhong, chairman of Jiangsu Yuntu Semiconductor Co., Ltd., said that the current industrial environment, including market competition, financing environment, and policy environment, are changing, which requires enterprises to develop in line with the concept of innovation and solve the practical problems they face, rather than simply following the previous way of playing, the previous product ideas and the rules of the previous products.
"The essence of involution is homogeneous competition, so it is very important to be able to innovate and form your own differentiated competitiveness. Of course, enterprises can't innovate for the sake of innovation, customer needs, market needs, objectively placed there, enterprises are not able to detach from the fundamentals and deliberately talk about innovation. Enterprises should consider the ability to define products when making innovations, find a reasonable balance between versatility and specificity, and even consider innovation points in business models to enhance stickiness to downstream customers. Yu Xin, President of Shiqing Intelligent Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., shared.
Hu Liqiang, chairman of Shanghai Jingfeng Mingyuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd., pointed out that the understanding of innovation can come from two aspects, one is the innovation of system solutions, and the other is the innovation of the chip itself, and enterprises can adjust and layout according to their own and market positioning.
In addition, companies at different stages will look at innovation differently. Zhao Minjun, vice president of operations of Shanghai Weijing Technology Co., Ltd., believes that for start-up companies, they often face challenges in terms of survival. At this stage, we may only be able to do some micro-innovations, based on the past technology accumulation, and make some subtle innovations according to the specific application market.