Abstract:With the deepening of intelligence, automobiles are gradually completing the transformation from transportation to mobile terminals, which also brings new market opportunities to the storage industry. Today, storage devices are used in infotainment, powertrain, and advanced driver assistance (ADAS) systems in automotive products, and as automation increases, so does the amount of storage capacity required. The global automotive memory chip market was valued at $4.76 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $10.25 billion by 2028. The automotive storage market is a high-growth semiconductor segment.
1. Definitions and Classification
Memory chip, also known as memory, refers to the semiconductor medium equipment that uses electrical energy to store information, and its storage and reading process is reflected in the storage or release of electrons, which is one of the basic products of integrated circuits with the widest application and the highest market proportion. In the automotive field, memory chips are the granaries of automotive computing and perception, distributed in the five domains of automobile body, chassis, cockpit, power, and autonomous driving, and support the storage functions of ADAS, IVI, instrument cluster, interconnection, black box and other applications. From the perspective of application form, memory chips are not only equipped with separate systems, but also packaged in various main control chips (MCUs, SoCs) to cache, read, and process information to improve the efficiency of data processing. Automotive memory chips are divided into volatile and non-volatile, volatile include DRAM and SRAM, and non-volatile includes NAND, NOR, EEPROM, etc., of which DRAM and NAND are the mainstream products.
Second, the business model
1. Fabless mode
Fabless model refers to the model of only engaging in the R&D, design and sales of chips, and outsourcing wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing to specialized wafer foundry, packaging and testing manufacturers. Since there is no need to spend huge sums of money to build a wafer production line, Fabless manufacturers can concentrate resources on the R&D and design of chips, which has the characteristics of "light assets and strong professionalism".
2. IDM mode
The IDM model is the vertically integrated manufacturing model, which means that in addition to chip design, enterprises also have their own wafer factories, packaging factories and testing plants, and its business scope covers the whole business links such as chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing. Due to the high requirements of this model on the financial strength, R&D strength, process level, organization and management of enterprises, the enterprises that adopt the IDM model are all global chip giants with strong technology and financial strength.
3、Foundry模式
In this mode, the company does not bear the risk of decision-making such as inaccurate market research and product design defects, and can provide foundry services for multiple design companies at the same time, but also has the disadvantages of large investment scale and high cost of maintaining the normal operation of the production line.
3. Industry policy
1. Competent authorities and regulatory system
The competent authority of the automotive memory chip industry is mainly the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China, and its main responsibilities are: formulating industry development strategies, development plans and industrial policies, formulating technical standards, guiding industry technological innovation and technological progress, organizing and implementing major national science and technology projects related to the industry, and promoting the industrialization of relevant scientific research achievements.
China Semiconductor Industry Association (CMA) is an industry self-regulatory organization in the automotive memory chip industry, which is mainly responsible for implementing government industrial policies, carrying out industry and market research, providing consulting services to member units and government departments, industry self-discipline management, and putting forward industrial development suggestions and opinions to government departments on behalf of member units.
2. Industry-related policies
In recent years, the central government and local governments of the mainland have issued a large number of policies to support the development of the automotive memory chip industry, which also provides huge opportunities for the development of domestic automotive memory chips. In January 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of the National Automotive Chip Standard System", which clearly stated that in terms of memory chips, priority should be given to promoting the formulation of chip standards such as DRAM, SRAM, NORFLASH, NANDFLASH, and EEPROM. Subsequently, in February, the Anhui Provincial People's Government issued the "Special Action Plan for Effective Investment in Anhui Province (2024)", proposing to implement key technology research in the field of integrated circuits and support major projects such as dynamic memory chips.
Fourth, industry barriers
1. Barriers to capital and scale
The automotive memory chip industry is a capital-intensive industry, and whether it is in the design and development of products or manufacturing and production, there are high requirements for the scale of capital of enterprises. At the same time, enterprises need to continue to invest in R&D and continuously upgrade product performance to meet customer needs. If the R&D investment is insufficient and the R&D progress is slowed down, it is likely that the manufacturer will lose the advantage of technology and cost.
2. Technical barriers
Automotive memory chips have high technical barriers. Compared with consumer-grade and industrial-grade memory chips, automotive-grade memory chips are more stringent than consumer-grade and industrial-grade memory chips in terms of reliability, safety, consistency, service life, etc., and their R&D cycle is longer, the design is more difficult, and the test and verification process is more complex, which is a higher barrier to entry for enterprises with insufficient R&D experience and less technology accumulation.
3. Customer barriers
Memory chips are widely used in automotive infotainment systems, navigation systems, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and other systems, and their reliability and stability directly affect the driving safety of automobiles. Therefore, downstream automobile manufacturers are extremely cautious when selecting upstream memory chip suppliers, and are very strict in controlling the introduction of new products, and usually verify the reliability, stability, and compatibility of a variety of products that meet the requirements and have a good reputation on the market, and select the most suitable chip solutions. Due to the long introduction cycle, once downstream customers choose a chip solution, they usually will not easily replace it, forming a barrier to new market entrants.
Fifth, the industrial chain
1. Analysis of the industry chain
The upstream of the automotive memory chip industry chain is the semiconductor materials and semiconductor equipment industry, which mainly includes silicon wafers, photoresists, targets, electronic special gases, polishing materials, etc., and semiconductor equipment includes lithography machines, CVD equipment, etching equipment. The midstream is automotive memory chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing. The downstream of the industrial chain is fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, and the demand for automotive memory chips is closely related to the operation of the automotive industry.
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