The rise of domestic CMOS chips
In this era of rapid technological development, mobile phones have become an indispensable part of modern people's lives. One of the core components of the mobile phone is the CMOS image sensor chip. For a long time, this field has been monopolized by international giants such as Sony and Samsung. In recent years, a new force from the East is rising rapidly, that is, domestic CMOS chips. With the strong support of domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, domestic chips are launching fierce challenges to these international giants.
The strength of domestic chips should not be underestimated
When it comes to domestic CMOS chips, we must first mention OmniVision Technology. The Shanghai-based chip manufacturer has risen rapidly in the domestic mobile phone market in recent years with its excellent technical strength and cost-effective advantages. Its OV50H sensor is known as the "light of domestic sensors", with excellent parameters such as 50 million pixels, 1/1.3-inch outsole and 1.2μm pixel size, and its performance is close to Sony's flagship IMX989 sensor.
In addition to Haowei, domestic chip manufacturers such as Geke Micro and Smartway are also stepping up to catch up. Gekewei's GC32E1 is the first high-end layout, claiming to have the same performance as Sony's stacked type; SmartSens' SC550XS is benchmarked against Sony's IMX766 and is manufactured using a 22nm process. The technical strength of these domestic chips should not be underestimated.
Domestic mobile phone manufacturers vigorously support
The rapid rise of domestic CMOS chips is largely due to the strong support of domestic mobile phone manufacturers. Taking Huawei and Xiaomi as examples, the two top domestic mobile phone manufacturers have adopted a large number of domestic CMOS chips on their flagship models.
Huawei's Mate 60 series mobile phones, equipped with Kirin 9000S chips, are manufactured by SMIC using 7nm process, and the performance is comparable to Qualcomm chips, reflecting the country's strong support for Huawei. The localization rate of Huawei Mate60 series mobile phones is as high as more than 90%.
The Xiaomi Mi 14 Ultra will also feature OmniVision's next-generation 1-inch CMOS sensor, challenging flagship sensors such as Sony's IMX989. It was revealed that the localization rate of the Xiaomi 14 series is about 75%.
In addition to Huawei and Xiaomi, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo have also adopted OmniVision's OV50H sensor, which has provided an important boost for the rise of domestic chips.
The pace of domestic substitution has accelerated
With the strong support of domestic mobile phone manufacturers for domestic CMOS chips, the market share of domestic chips is also increasing. According to statistics, the share of domestic CMOS chips in China's mobile phone market has reached 12% in 2022, ranking down.
With the recovery of domestic mobile phone sales, the shipment of domestic CMOS chips will also increase significantly. Sony and Samsung's share of the Chinese market has been declining, and their positions have been severely challenged.
All this indicates that the pace of domestic substitution is accelerating. In the near future, domestic CMOS chips are expected to achieve corner overtaking in the domestic market and become a leading force.
Technological breakthroughs have accelerated the development of domestic chips
In addition to the increase in market share, domestic CMOS chips have also made major breakthroughs at the technical level. Tsinghua University, for example, recently developed the world's first memristor memory computing chip that supports on-chip learning, an innovation that will greatly improve the computing power of the chip.
The domestic chip start-up Benxin Technology also announced that their first general-purpose intelligent CPU chip has been successfully lit, which marks that domestic CPU chips are moving forward.
In the field of materials, domestic optical chip materials have also made breakthroughs, no longer relying on imports, injecting new impetus into the development of domestic chips.
This series of technological breakthroughs will further accelerate the development of domestic CMOS chips.
Throughout the development process of domestic CMOS chips, it is not difficult for us to find that although there is still a certain gap with international giants such as Sony and Samsung in terms of technical strength and market share, domestic chips are rapidly catching up and have broad development prospects.
As long as we continue to maintain the pace of innovation and adhere to the independent and controllable development path, I believe that in the near future, domestic CMOS chips will be able to achieve corner overtaking and shine on the world stage. Let's wait and see what this great moment will be!