Zhao Chuanyu, Vice President of Sales, ADI China: The pandemic has stimulated strong demand for digital health technologies

After experiencing the global lack of cores in 2021, we ushered in 2022, this year, WHO believes that the new crown epidemic will be controlled, with the weakening of the impact of the epidemic, and aiot, smart home market, elderly health market heating, what new changes will the semiconductor industry have? Electronic Innovation Network interviewed dozens of semiconductor executives and conveyed 2022 in the eyes of well-known semiconductors in the form of a series of questions and answers on "Industry Leaders Look at 2022", which is the sixth report in the series--- a reply from Zhao Chuanyu, vice president of sales at ADI China.

Chuanyu Zhao, Vice President of Sales, ADI China

1 Q. Do you think the COVID-19 epidemic will be effectively controlled in 2022? Why?

Zhao Chuanyu: The COVID-19 pandemic has been in the global epidemic for two years, and its continued impact on the macroeconomy, industry landscape and business operations has also changed our perception of normalcy. While it's still hard to predict when the pandemic will end, it's prompting us to rethink how we face change and how we work together to face the world's shared challenges.

On the other hand, we have confidence in the new year, although last year's COVID-19 epidemic was like an out-of-control gray rhinoceros running rampant around the world, but due to the effective control of the epidemic, China, the world's second largest economy, the economy is still maintaining steady growth, which also injects more confidence into the recovery of global economic growth. ADI China and our customers have faced changes in the past year, but we have also seen new opportunities in the change, which makes us full of confidence in 2022.

2Q. Looking back on 2021, what are the highlights of your company?

Zhao Chuanyu: In the past year, ADI China has worked with partners and customers to cope with changes, turning many impossibilities into reality, and we continue to empower products through technological innovation in automotive, energy storage, industrial automation, communications, healthcare, consumer electronics and other fields to create value for customers. At the same time, we upgraded our ADI China operations headquarters and officially registered Yardnold Investments Co., Ltd., and since then, ADI China has integrated all aspects of demand research, product definition, research and development, marketing and operation, and gradually improved the local supply chain and production cooperation system. Established for two years, ADI China Products Division has begun to fulfill the promise of "in China, for China", and in the past year, it has successively launched a number of products designed and developed according to the needs of the Chinese market and independently defined by the local team, covering multiple hot markets of new energy, health monitoring, consumer electronics and communications, many of which have been applied to head customers and achieved good economic and social benefits. These innovative products demonstrate the ability of the ADI China team to complete the entire process from product definition to mass production, while maintaining the traditional DNA of high performance and reliability of ADI products.

Another highlight is that ADI completed the acquisition of Maxim, both companies pursue engineering excellence, have the DNA of advocating innovation, after several months of integration work, we are combining the technical advantages of both sides, so that the new ADI has more perfect technical capabilities and system solutions, and form a new organizational structure that is more suitable for the development of the industry and the needs of customers, to better serve customers.

3Q. For 2022, what industry hotspots do you think will stimulate demand for semiconductors?

Zhao Chuanyu: The global digital economy is accelerating and deepening the integration with the real industry, and the trend of industrial digitalization is becoming increasingly obvious. The continent's construction of infrastructure with digitalization as the core is driving the transformation of the entire national economy. Whether it is the low-carbon development of the economy, the intelligence of the city or the automation of the industry, it will bring obvious impetus to the semiconductor industry. Taking the energy sector as an example, the dual-carbon strategy will accelerate the transformation of the energy structure, and the energy storage field on the energy supply side and the vehicle electrification field on the energy consumption side have great development potential, and stimulate the demand for semiconductors. For another example, driven by the new infrastructure layout, China's data center industry has entered an unprecedented stage of development, and continues to show a high-speed growth trend in 2021. At the same time, dual carbon and energy consumption dual control have a profound impact on the data center industry, which also brings opportunities to the semiconductor industry, including the upgrading of optical communication technology brought about by traffic explosions, and low-power semiconductor power supply technology under the dual-carbon policy.

In addition, the protracted pandemic reflects the fragility of healthcare systems, raising global concerns about health and healthcare systems, as well as generating strong demand for key digital health technology products. New digital medical technologies, especially wearables, are proving to be playing an increasing value. ADI sees a thirst for digital technology among healthcare practitioners who hope that it can help reduce the cost of healthcare, shorten the course of patient disease, and cure early illnesses. In the coming decades, healthcare is expected to experience rapid growth, both at the level of large-scale machine diagnostics and at the level of human daily life.

4Q. For these new points, what is your company's product layout and response strategy?

Zhao Chuanyu: In response to these hot market demands in China, ADI China Products Division actively develops industry-leading technologies and product solutions to help customers quickly respond to market demand and create value. For example, in the field of new energy: the 18-channel ADBMS1818 battery management chip has been used by head customers, as well as subsequent product series, and the application areas include industrial energy storage and new energy vehicles. Digital Health: ADPD6000 3-in-1 analog front end for measuring ECG, blood oxygen, and body fat rate. Optical communication field: The 4th generation optical module controller product ADuCM430, high performance, high integration, small size, low noise, low power consumption, and fully consider the ease of use and software configuration, so as to meet the needs of data center and 5G communication development.

5 Q, 2022, will the lack of core tide continue? Why? If so, when will it be mitigated? How will your company's capacity be in 2022?

Zhao Chuanyu: On the one hand, the shortage of production capacity reflects the development of digitalization, with the acceleration of the process of electrification and intelligence of automobiles, the significant increase in the penetration rate of mobile phones and terminal smart products, and the rapid development of IoT and communication technology, semiconductors are increasingly infiltrating into all aspects of people's lives. On the other hand, the shortage of production capacity is also a common problem and challenge facing the whole industry, the semiconductor industry has its own cyclicality and complexity, the current shortage of production capacity is gradually solved, but still need patience, but on the other hand, a lot of attention, capital investment into the semiconductor industry, the long-term development of the entire industry is good.

In the face of production capacity challenges, for the Chinese market, ADI from all aspects of the product supply guarantee in China, in addition to the use of the existing international semiconductor supply chain system, to ensure the high-quality production and supply of products, on the other hand, we actively cooperate with local supply chain partners, gradually covering manufacturing, packaging and testing, the establishment of a complete and flexible supply system to ensure that it meets the needs of domestic customers.

6Q. In 2022, what new demand do you think customers will have for semiconductor products?

Zhao Chuanyu: In 2022, we see the trend that there will be more customers and more vertical industries to start digital transformation, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" Intelligent Manufacturing Development Plan mentions that by 2025, 70% of China's manufacturing enterprises above designated size will basically achieve digitalization. As traditional industries move from digital transformation, customers from vertical industries need semiconductor technology experts like ADI to bridge their business with digital platforms, and they want us to provide a holistic solution to the challenges of the signal chain, while they can focus on the growth of their own business.

Therefore, the value provided by semiconductor manufacturers has changed from providing a single product value to providing system value to creating ecosystem value. In recent years, ADI has begun to start from the three levels of hardware innovation, system innovation, and ecological innovation, beyond the thinking of "parts" manufacturers (Go Beyond Silicon) to help customers improve the overall performance of the overall product or system.

For example, ADI's Battery Management System (BMS) for electric vehicles is a successful practice of innovation from product to system. From the perspective of hardware innovation, ADI proposed BMS, which can provide accurate power measurement and battery life management for electric vehicles, thereby improving the mileage; subsequently, we proposed a wireless BMS from the perspective of "designing a car" system, eliminating the wiring complexity and volume weight increase caused by cables, helping automotive OEMs gain new value from then on. But that's not the end of BMS innovation. On the contrary, ADI continues to deepen innovation to a higher level - from the perspective of industrial ecology, we have insight into the potential value of wireless BMS to promote the development of the second-hand electric vehicle industry, which can start from the formation of batteries, warehousing, record battery data, the working conditions of batteries during driving, until electric vehicle recycling, battery residual value assessment, solve the electric vehicle industry facing the recycling, valuation of the big problem, but also promote the battery ladder utilization, promote the sustainable development of the industry.

7 questions, it is expected that the global semiconductor market will continue to grow in 2022, revenue will exceed 600 billion US dollars, in this context, in this context, how do you think Chinese local companies and foreign companies will compete?

Zhao Chuanyu: As China's industry upgrades towards digitalization, the Chinese market plays an important role in the global semiconductor industry. As a company that has been operating in China for more than 25 years, ADI can be said to have become a member of the local industry ecology. Analog Devices China not only drives the industry through technology introduction and local R&D, but also influences industrial upgrading by supporting customer innovation.

The establishment of Adeno Investments Co., Ltd. and ADI China Products Division enables ADI to respond to the innovation needs of customers with local decision-making and Chinese speed, and to implement a localization strategy covering product definition, research and development, manufacturing, operation and other aspects, which provides a new paradigm for international technologies to land in China and international companies to develop in China. We are very pleased that the domestic semiconductor industry has been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan and has entered a period of rapid and high-level development. More and more localized enterprises, including ADI, will adhere to innovation, make breakthroughs, participate in healthy industry competition, and promote the improvement of the overall industry level.