Set micro-network news, the automobile industry has undergone a hundred years of development, from mechanical hardware, to mechatronics, and then to today's "new four modernizations", automotive products are constantly being redefined by innovative technology, but also given more and more functions, including perception, computing, connection and interaction, which also allows cars in addition to the attributes of transportation, but also added the attributes of intelligent terminals and communication infrastructure. These changes come from the technological progress of automotive chips, the underlying hardware of the car, and have fundamentally changed the ecological pattern of the automotive industry.
Competing for automotive electronics, domestic semiconductor manufacturers face the wind and cross-border
China as the forefront of new technologies such as automotive electrification, intelligence, and digitalization, the scale of the automotive electronics market is growing year by year, and the demand for chips is also growing, according to Statista data, it is expected that by 2030, automotive electronics will account for 45% of the total vehicle cost. However, over the years, the market has been almost monopolized by the world's top ten automotive semiconductor manufacturers such as NXP, Infineon, Renesas, and TI, and the penetration rate of domestic chips is insufficient. Moreover, these European, American and Japanese enterprises started early, advanced technology, have formed a scale advantage, and formed a stable supply relationship with the main automakers and Tier 1, resulting in high industry barriers, which is not conducive to new participants to enter.
Domestic automotive semiconductor manufacturers ushered in a window of opportunity, the epidemic seriously affected the supply of overseas chips, and the production capacity of global car companies has been hit hard this year. On the other hand, the mainstream development trend of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles, the overall supply status of the semiconductor industry and the background of complex international relations reflect more the importance and urgency of independent replacement of domestic automotive chips in the medium and long term.
On top of the outlet, a number of domestic automotive chip design companies have also emerged and developed in recent years, some of which belong to the "cross-border forces" - from consumer electronics to automotive electronics, which is also a microcosm of industry transformation and integration. Automotive electronics has become the next focus of competition after the mobile phone industry, and many semiconductor manufacturers are looking forward to breaking new ground in emerging fields.
Moreover, compared with domestic suppliers specializing in automotive chips, such "cross-border forces" also have their own advantages. As we all know, automotive electronics is very demanding on semiconductors, research and development and mass production is difficult, many domestic manufacturers are also discouraged or uncertain because of the long research and development cycle, high design threshold, large capital investment, etc. However, most of these cross-border enterprises have stable income, and even if the new business is still in its infancy, the company level is always able to continuously transfuse its research and development. Shanghai Aiwei Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Aiwei), which is to be mentioned below, is such a company that enters the automotive electronics from consumer electronics.
The lesser-known side, Ai Weixin, who has broken into the automotive supply chain
As we all know, Ai Wei is a leader in the field of domestic analog chips, and throughout the domestic consumer electronics, it is the big brother of analog chips. Since its inception in 2008, Ai Wei has gradually improved the industrial layout, the main products include audio power amplifier chips, power management chips, RF front-end chips, motor driver chips, etc., as of December 31, 2020, Ai Wei has more than 600 products with independent intellectual property rights, and the number of products is still increasing. In 2020, the sales volume of about 3.2 billion products is widely used in the field of new smart hardware represented by smart phones, smart watches, Bluetooth headsets, tablets and laptops, etc. Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, TRANSSION, TCL, Lenovo and other well-known mobile phone manufacturers have applied Ai Weixin.
However, what is less known is that Ai Wei has already laid out and actually landed in the field of automotive electronics, and some chip products have entered the automotive field through module manufacturers, equipped with Geely, Wuling Hongguang, Chery and other models.
In fact, since Chevrolet tried to put the radio into the car in 1922, consumers' demands for cars are no longer satisfied with simple mechanical tools. Nearly 100 years of historical changes, the car carries more and more functions, and now, with the rise of the tide of intelligence, networking, the concept of intelligent cockpit is gradually moving towards popularization, from more and more on-board screens, the vehicle information and content presented are more and more abundant, including on-board navigation, battery information, etc., to integrated human-computer interaction, to ensure communication and communication between people, vehicles and the external environment, the realization of these functions and technological innovation are more and more dependent on the underlying audio power amplifier chip, RADIO frequency front-end chip and so on.
Aiwei's products, including audio amplifier chips, power management chips, RF front-end chips, and motor driver chips, can support these technological innovations, which can not only enrich the user experience, make it closer to the needs of end users, but also help the intelligent transformation of car companies. For example, Aiwei RF product line GPS LNA products and power supply products Linear Chargeer are applied to Geely Automobile's central control core board module. The application of GPS LNA products can enhance the accuracy of the gps positioning system in the car; Aiwei Linear Chargeer is suitable for charging the vehicle TBOX battery, escorting the long-term stable, safe and reliable work of the car.
Ai Wei's products to help Wuling Hongguang are LDO products and LED drivers. LDO products have the advantages of high PSRR, low noise, low power consumption, small board space, etc., and can provide high-quality power supply for in-vehicle communication systems. LED driver can be used in automotive dashboards, indicator lights and other scenarios, enriching the lighting effect at the same time, but also to achieve a good indication effect.
With excellent performance, Aiwei audio amplifier products have also successfully "penetrated" Chery Automobile's supply chain, and the two-channel output can increase the shock of music or soundtrack when applied to car audio, and meet the user's pursuit of car audio quality and volume. When applied to various prompt scenes such as TBOX, the clear and bright tone can also play a better prompt role and better protect user safety.
More critically, the car will become the largest intelligent mobile terminal in the future, and the semiconductor components it carries will increase significantly, which will also bring diversified growth opportunities for chip suppliers that originally focused on the consumer electronics track, and the cross-border layout under the general trend will also bring more possibilities to their own business, and it is also a brick and tile for the independent and controllable supply chain of China's automotive chips.
Five major product lines are out together to throw the smart electric vehicle market
In the future, with the upgrading of electrification, networking and intelligence in the automotive industry, the importance of automotive chips will become increasingly prominent. In view of the current especially hot, penetration rate in the climbing intelligent electric vehicle market, in addition to the products mentioned above, Ai Wei's "sound, light, electricity, shooting, hand" five product lines also strongly launched a variety of chip products, covering car audio, car TBOX, power management, car interior touch, pressure sense, Bluetooth enhancement, navigation and positioning and other solutions, the specific information is as follows.
1. Sound
A variety of products in the Product Line of AiWeisheng can be used in different scenes of automobiles. Taking AiWei analog Smart K audio power amplifier chip as an example, through the blessing of the 3-level AGC hardware power protection algorithm, it can effectively improve the loudness within the rated speaker power, which is suitable for scenarios such as TBOX and dashboard alarm tones, bringing users a clear and non-harsh prompt beep sound effect.
It is reported that Ai Wei is about to launch a product with an on-board sound algorithm. The product has the processing technology of multi-channel spatial sound field, with independent sound zone, bass enhancement and many other features, bringing a new experience to the car audio, and realizing the localization of the car sound algorithm.
2. Light
With the gradual expansion of the automotive market, the market demand for LED driver chips has also gradually increased. In response to this demand, Aiwei can also provide a variety of low-power, high-reliability LED driver chip products. Taking AiWei's 72-channel matrix LED driver chip as an example, with the advantages of I-C interface and support for multi-chip cascading (device address can be matched, clock synchronization), the product can be used in automotive smart boxes and other scenarios to achieve rich interior lighting effects and enhance the cool sense of technology.
It is reported that Aiwei direct-drive breathing lamp drive and backlight drive products can also cover multiple application scenarios such as automotive atmosphere lights and display backlights, providing a variety of choices for interior lighting and atmosphere lighting effects.
3. Electricity
A wide range of high-performance linear regulator products from Aiwei's product line are available for automotive solutions. This series of high-performance linear regulators has the characteristics of high PSRR, low noise, ultra-low dropout voltage, ultra-low thermal resistance, etc., and has the functions of output short circuit protection, reverse leakage protection, etc., which can effectively suppress noise, and is suitable for video surveillance, information processing, entertainment systems, USB assembly and other module power supply, supporting flexible and adjustable output voltage.
4. Shoot
For in-car Bluetooth communication, wireless data communication, Wi-Fi communication module, Ai Wei also has corresponding solutions.
Bluetooth transceiver integrated FEM series products, with ultra-low working current characteristics, suitable for Bluetooth communication module, can significantly enhance the Performance of Bluetooth wireless connection, improve the connection distance and weak signal audio quality.
Aiwei's full range of RF switches can meet the needs of different scenarios, and the characteristics of low insertion loss, high linearity and high isolation can better ensure the stability and efficiency of wireless data communication in the car.
Aiwei Wi-Fi switch series products are mainly suitable for Wi-Fi communication modules in the car, which can significantly improve the signal strength of Wi-Fi communication in the car and ensure the smooth and stable signal connection.
5. Hands
In the car touch operation, steering wheel virtual buttons, car no physical button design, automotive brushless motor and other application scenarios, Ai Wei hand product line has a wealth of solutions.
Taking Aiwei high-voltage 11V linear motor drive as an example, it supports IC control mode, built-in integrated 12K SRAM waveform space, with F0 detection and F0 automatic tracking & braking function, support multi-mode playback mode (RAM Mode, RTP Mode, CONT Mode), support waveform custom output and its high-precision load impedance detection and overcurrent, overtemperature, undervoltage protection and other functions. It can be used for automotive central control display operation feedback, 3D touch, central control, window, top window, steering wheel virtual button feedback, customized haptic alarm reminder (steering wheel), massage seat (vibration with sound), vehicle 4D cinema (haptic feedback) and other scenes, so that the interaction becomes efficient and simple at the same time, adding the fun and scientific and technological sense of interaction.
For the increasing number of in-car in-car no-physical button designs, Aiwei can also provide SoC microcontrollers with embedded 32-bit ARM MO+ for pressure-sensitive front-end data acquisition and processing and control systems.
The Hall Sensor has the advantages of high sensitivity and low power consumption, and can be used for door, window and body control, as well as automotive brushless motors.
Write at the end
Looking at the present, China has become the world's largest analog IC market, IDC data show that in 2020, the Asian analog IC market sales have accounted for nearly 70% of the world, of which the Chinese mainland market accounted for 36%. Although local analog IC manufacturers have risen one after another, the current sales scale of domestic simulation manufacturers is still very limited, and the self-sufficiency rate is only about 12%, and there is still a large domestic replacement space in the future.
The study shows that the largest downstream application of analog ICs is the communications market, accounting for 36.5% of the share in 2020. However, automotive electronics has benefited from the development of downstream demand for new energy vehicles in the past five years, with the fastest growth, and has become the second largest downstream application scenario, with a market share of 24.0%, which will become the golden track of analog ICs in the future. Therefore, for Ai Wei, the cross-border layout is a big plus, and it is also another important supplement to the company's future profitability.