To say which semiconductor subdivision is the most lively recently, it belongs to the radio frequency field, including Feixiang technology, intelligent micro, Kangxi communications and other companies are waiting in line with IPO.
However, when it comes to RF chips, many people's first reaction is "has-been," whether it is the original RF related companies listed repeatedly broke, or the primary market cooling, investment institutions no longer prefer RF technology, or Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom and other RF giants to expand other markets.[1]"There are signs of pessimism.
Although China seems to be strong in the RF field, there are still many gaps. 6G, Wi-Fi 7 is slowly coming, the market should continue to remain rational, but also to the future layout.
This article is the 22nd article in the "Domestic Substitution" series planned by "Nut Shell Hard Technology," focusing on the domestic substitution of RF chips. In this article, you will learn: which chips are related to RF, the overall development of RF chips, and the way out of domestic RF chips.
Let the phone be the phone The term Radio Frenquency is a literal translation of English and was first used in wireless broadcasting (FM / AM). And now the radio frequency related module is still equipped in all the devices that need wireless and communication, responsible for the reception, conversion and presentation of 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, UWB, LoRa, NB-IoT and other communication protocols. Without the RF module, the phone can no longer be called a phone. Radio frequency chip is the core of radio frequency module, which refers to the integrated circuit which can receive or transmit radio frequency signal and process it. Processing refers to the up conversion and filtering of baseband signal, or the received radio frequency signal through down conversion and filtering to get the baseband signal. The RF chip is not very demanding on the process process and is not affected by Moore's Law.[2]"But that doesn't mean it's simple. Unlike CPU, GPU or power management chips, RF chip design is complex, and generally based on the operating frequency band and gain as the main measure, so the market as a whole is relatively stable, update slowly, unlike the former as often new releases.[3] Mainstream RF manufacturers mainly operate by independent production, that is, IDM (Integrated Design and Manufacture, vertical integrated manufacturing), Fabless (no manufacturing semiconductors) mode companies are difficult to form an advantage with IDM company, in addition, the threshold of RF chips is very high, not to say that they can do it. On the one hand, the functions of mobile terminal devices have increased rapidly, and 5G and Wi-Fi 6 technologies have become mainstream. The number of RF chips has increased sharply, but the space left for RF chips has not increased simultaneously. The high degree of integration will further increase the difficulty of its design. Coupled with the problems of different types of chips combination, interference and coexistence, the design difficulty is exponentially improved. For example, in the 4G era, only the flagship mobile phone manufacturer uses the highly integrated PAMiD RF front-end solution, while in the 5G era, L-PAMiD and L-PAMiF have become the standard of high-end mobile phones, and RF chip companies that cannot provide relevant technologies will only be eliminated. [4] On the other hand, from a commercial point of view, designing an RF chip not only requires a lot of theoretical knowledge, but also tests the designer's experience. Most integrated circuits that do not rely on the process rely on replacement materials to improve performance. GaAs (gallium arsenide), SiGe (silicon germanium), GaN (gallium nitride), each generation of materials, has its own process, devices and circuits, plus many RF chip specifications are challenging the limits of the process, which requires device structure has many innovations. [5] There are four different markets. RF chip is a very broad word, although in many cases, the RF chip in our mouth refers to the RF front-end chip, but in fact, there is more than one RF chip embedded in the mobile phone, and each has a broad market prospect. Generally speaking, the mobile phone wireless communication module is divided into RF front-end, baseband, transceiver, antenna four major parts, each part is composed of a large number of discrete chips, the market is very complex. Schematic diagram of smart phone communication system structure[6] RF Front End - A Domestic Favorite Radio frequency front-end RFFE (RF Front End) is the only way for antenna and RF transceiver chip. It is responsible for the transmission and reception of radio magnetic wave signals. It is a necessary core module for mobile terminal devices to realize cellular network connection, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other wireless communication functions. RF front-end chips usually integrate a variety of different devices, and the types and number of devices integrated in different terminals are also different. In most cases, RF front-end chips include power amplifiers (PA), filters (Filter), Duplexers or demultiplexers (Duplexer or Multiplexer), low noise amplifiers (LNA), switches (Switch), antenna tuning modules (ASM) and other devices, while in the RF front-end architecture of some terminals, dual channels (Diplexer) and connectors (Coupler) will be added after antenna switches. [7] Different devices do not do their own tasks, but coordinate with each other: the RF amplifier (PA) is used to amplify the RF signal of the transmission channel; A RF low noise amplifier (LNA) is used to amplify the RF signal of the receiving channel; A duplexer is used to isolate the transmitted signal and the received signal; The filter is used to retain the signal of the specific frequency band and filter the signal outside the specific frequency band; The RF switch is used to realize the RF signal transceiver conversion, and concentrates the RF signals in different frequency bands in the same path. [6] In addition, different devices also affect the communication quality of the whole machine: for example, the link insertion loss of the entire front-end affects the RF signal power and sensitivity. The PA amplification performance will affect the power of the transmitted signal, the LNA amplification performance will affect the sensitivity of the received signal, and the filter will affect the out-of-band spurious index of the RF signal.[8] Introduction of Terminal Part RF Front End Devices[7] From 2 G to 5 G, RF front-end design has been very different:
On the one hand, the number of chips in mobile terminal devices has increased sharply, and the overall value has continued to rise. For example, the value of the RF front-end in high-end 4G mobile phones has reached 17 times that of 2G mobile phones, while the value of the RF front-end in the 5G era has reached more than twice that of 4G;[9]
On the other hand, the space left for RF front-end chips by mobile terminal devices has not increased, In the past, the RF front-end module circuit design focused on the power amplifier (PA) design, the pursuit of low-voltage operation, high power output, high power, in order to meet the use of low-voltage batteries, in order to reduce the volume, while achieving the purpose of saving electricity.[10]However, in today's increasingly feature-rich world, manufacturers can only improve the integration of the RF front-end to meet existing design needs, which will inevitably increase the entry threshold for the high-end market.
2G ~ 5G RF front-end composition changes and value[11] In the past years of development, RF front-end different device processes and materials have undergone many iterations. At present, the frequency band below 2 GHz, the RF front-end module is mainly designed with silicon integrated circuit processes such as metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), bipolar junction (BJT), silicon germanium (SiGe) or Bipolar CMOS, and the frequency band above 5 GHz, GaAs field effect transistors perform well in electrical functions. Looking at the entire market, the current RF front-end device trends are as follows -
filter: can be divided into radio frequency filter and base station filter, SAW (surface acoustic wave), BAW (bulk acoustic wave) is the current mainstream technology, compared to SAW, BAW's frequency band is higher, less loss, wider frequency range[12]At present, SAW is biased towards low-frequency data processing, mainly Japanese manufacturers, the market application space is larger, BAW is biased towards high-frequency data processing, mainly American manufacturers, the application space is narrower, but the value is high.[2]From the point of view of the production chain, the upstream key raw materials include piezoelectric crystal (SAW commonly used lithium tantalate, lithium niobate, etc., FBAR commonly used aluminum nitride, etc.) and ceramic substrates, mainly concentrated in Japan; Midstream device manufacturing is concentrated in Japan and the United States; The downstream demand side includes mobile phones, vehicle terminals, VR equipment and so on. In the 4G era, a mobile phone only needs more than 30 filters, and hundreds of filters are usually used in the 5G period, in addition, the unit price has also increased from 7.5 US dollars to 8-12 US dollars, and the market space is gradually climbing. [13]In the market, the filter will grow from 12.1 billion USD in 2022 to 34.61 billion USD by 2030, with a CAGR of 16.2%;[14]
amplifier: Divided into RF low noise amplifiers and RF power amplifiers, Mainly using PHEMT and HBT two types of transistors to achieve, X-band and above band mainly using high frequency, low noise, large output power PHEMT process, HBT process in high-speed, large dynamic range, low harmonic distortion, low phase noise and other applications occupy a unique position[15]Only amplifiers that meet certain technical specifications have practicability, including power output, system efficiency, frequency range and distortion, etc. Domestic players include intelligent micro, purple light sharp, Feixiang technology, Anruiwei and so on. On the market side, PA will grow from $5.03 billion in 2022 to $21.04 billion in 2032, a compound annual growth rate of 15 per cent[16], LNA will grow from $2.05 billion in 2020 to $3.29 billion in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.97%;[17]
RF switchIt mainly includes conduction switch and antenna switch, mainly adopts RF-SOI technology, and is widely used in mobile intelligent terminals such as smart phones.[11]The market for RF switches will grow from US $4.02 billion in 2020 to USD 8.56 billion in 2027 with a CAGR of 11.4%.[18]
DuplexerIt is composed of two groups of band stop filter with different frequencies to avoid the transmission of the local transmission signal to the receiver. Technical indicators include operating frequency range, isolation, insertion loss, stability, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR). On the market side, diplexers will grow from $7.85 billion in 2022 to $21.62 billion in 2023 with a compound annual growth rate of 10.7%.[19]
The materials and special manufacturing processes of different RF front-end devices are constantly evolving.[20] The global market growth of RF front-end is stable and the concentration is very high. According to Yole data, the products of five manufacturers in the United States, such as Skyworks, Broadcom, Qorvo, Qualcomm and Murata of Japan, account for more than 80 per cent of the market share in 2021 and 2022, while domestic manufacturers, Rudiko, National Feixiang, Agile, Weir shares, etc., share only the remaining 20 per cent of the market. In addition, according to Yole's latest research, the RF front-end market will rise from $19.2 billion in 2022 to $26.9 billion in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.8%.[21] RF Front End Market Forecast from 2021 to 2027[21] Market Data of Major RF Front-End Manufacturers from 2021 to 2027[21] From a patent perspective, China attaches great importance to RF front-end technology research. According to Smart Bud data, a search using RF front-end as a keyword turned up a total of 22,223 patents in 170 countries / regions with a total value of $1,184,138,000. Among them, China took the majority, accounting for 85.21% of the global RF front-end patent review, followed by the United States, accounting for 10.48%. From the trend of patent applications from 2004 to 2023, the number of global RF front-end patent applications and authorizations increased year by year before 2020, and then gradually slowed down to the level of 2018, and the proportion of authorizations began to decline rapidly since 2015. Compared with the wireless development in the same period, from 2004 to 2020, it was a high-speed iteration period of wireless technology, and the rapid iteration of cellular mobile technology and Wi-Fi technology, especially in the period of 5G and Wi-Fi 6, and related technologies emerged in an endless stream. Up to now, the overall maturity of the market has gradually increased, and the demand for superimposed RF front-end applications has slowed down, and the market has also regained calm. RF front-end patent development trend chart, the source of wisdom bud From the ranking of RF front-end applicants, Huawei is far ahead in the number of applications, with a total of 866 RF front-end patents, followed by OPPO, North (Tianjin), vivo, South China University of Technology, ZTE, Qualcomm, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Apple Inc. In addition, Honor, Google, and Intel are also active in the RF front-end field, with 103, 93, and 91 patents respectively. Analysis of RF front-end applicant ranking, source of wisdom bud In addition, RF front-end and chip as keywords in the smart bud search, in 170 countries / regions has a total of 932 patents, the total value of the patent reached 24,935,900 US dollars. Among them, the most abundant patent reserves are still China, accounting for 78.32% of the global RF front-end chip patents, and the rest are 7.85% in the United States, 2.13% in Europe, 1.86% in South Korea, 1.20% in Germany, and 1.06% in Japan. From the perspective of the flow chart of the five bureaus, the layout of China's huge number of RF front-end chip patents is mainly concentrated in China, while China and the United States occupy most of the patents. RF front-end chip technology source country / region trend analysis, map source | wisdom bud Looking at the situation of patent applicants in the field of RF front-end chips, Qualcomm's patent reserve is significantly ahead of other companies, with a total of 40 patents. In addition, the patents of domestic companies such as ZTE, Agile, Ruishi, Xinwei Communications, Exhibition Communications, Huawei and other domestic companies in RF front-end chips are also worthy of attention. RF front-end chip applicant ranking analysis, source of wisdom bud Baseband chips - almost monopolized The full name of baseband is the basic band, which originally refers to the inherent frequency bandwidth of the unmodulated original electrical signal, that is, the 0Hz signal at the center point, and now it usually refers to the communication module in the mobile phone, including the baseband chip, baseband signal modem and other auxiliary components. Baseband chip is the core part of baseband, which is responsible for signal generation, modulation, coding and frequency shift. Generally speaking, the baseband chip is independent of other chips, and there are a large number of repetitive devices in mobile phones, including five parts: CPU processor, channel encoder, digital signal processor, modem and interface module.[22]The standalone system helps run more efficiently and protects against application errors or operating system changes.[23] Baseband chips have long been monopolized, from the existing market point of view, Qualcomm is the absolute ruler of the baseband chip field, Strategy Analytics report, 2022Q3 Qualcomm's mobile phone baseband chip revenue accounted for 62% of the total global revenue, followed by MediaTek (26%) and Samsung (6%)[24]The difficulties are:
First of all, the wireless communication technology has been iterated for many times, and the terminal generally requires the terminal to have multi-mode and multi-frequency capabilities, and can roam multiple regions of the world without any changes, which requires the baseband chip to have backward compatibility capabilities, such as covering 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G and Wi-Fi 6 standards.[25]
Secondly, the baseband chip architecture is extremely complex, R & D requires strong technical reserves and continued financial support, hardware architecture, baseband chips mostly use MCU (Arm) + DSP + ASIC architecture, involving codec, channel estimation, channel equalization, synchronization and measurement algorithms.[26]The software package includes RTOS, Drivers and Protocol Stack.[27]
Finally, the giants with rich technical capabilities and experience monopolize the market, and the latecomers may be seized by competitors only once they make mistakes in decision-making or delay listing. Constantly in a passive situation, so many foreign traditional suppliers have given up baseband chip research and development, such as strong Intel had to give up the baseband chip cake.
Baseband patent development trend chart, the source of wisdom bud Huawei is the most active in the baseband field, and the total number of patents applied by Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. alone is as high as 32,200. Followed by Qualcomm, patent applications for 9312, ZTE, OPPO, vivo, glory, Samsung, Apple, Sony, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel and other familiar companies are also very concerned about baseband technology. Analysis of Baseband Applicant Ranking, Map Source | Wisdom Bud From the flow chart of the five Bureaux, although the number of baseband patents in China is very large, the layout is mainly concentrated in China, and the overseas layout is insufficient. Although the number of the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea is small, but the layout is more balanced, in addition, the number of baseband chip patents distributed to China in the United States is more, paying more attention to the relevant markets in China. Trend analysis of the source countries / regions of baseband chip technology, source of wisdom bud Huawei is still the company with the widest layout around baseband chips, and the number of related patents has reached 192, while Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung, which monopolize half of the baseband chips, also have rich patent reserves. In addition, noteworthy international enterprises include Avago, LG, Infineon, and domestic enterprises include ZTE, TCL, Spreadtrum, Huaqin Electronics, OPPO, Konka, etc. Baseband chip applicant ranking analysis, source of wisdom bud Radio Frequency Transceivers - Neglected Areas As the name suggests, RF transceiver is equivalent to the mailbox in the mobile phone, helping to receive or send, which determines the final cost and performance of the entire RF unit. According to the spectrum transformation process in the transceiver process, the RF transceiver chip can be divided into superheterodyne structure, zero-IF structure and direct RF sampling structure. Different structures have their own advantages and disadvantages in integration, performance, cost and power consumption.[28]Among them, the superheterodyne structure is the most classical one. RF transceiver chips are also extremely difficult to break through in China, and the domestic self-sufficiency rate is almost zero. While its future market size will exceed $30 billion, RF transceiver chips will grow from $12.2 billion in 2021 to $36.57 billion in 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.6%, according to Verified Market Research.[29]With the development of the Internet of Vehicles, the Industrial Internet of Things and the satellite Internet industry, the market for transceiver chips will only continue to expand.[30] An RF transceiver chip consists of a large number of discrete components with a high quality index of merit. Including low noise amplifier, mixer, RF, intermediate frequency and image frequency rejection filter, voltage controlled oscillator, etc., and the integration degree of the finished product is getting higher and higher, coupled with the multimode is a mandatory requirement, so the CMOS integration process is extremely complex and difficult[31]What is more difficult is that the chip product must be able to coordinate other parts of the module, forming an organic whole system to operate efficiently.[32] Transceiver chip manufacturers are divided into two categories, one is relying on the base frequency platform, the transceiver as a part of the platform, such as Texas Instruments (TI), Qualcomm (Qualcomm), Enzipu (NXP), MediaTek), the other is a professional RF manufacturer, does not rely on the base frequency platform to expand the transceiver chip market, such as Infineon, ST, RFMD, Skyworks.[10] 从专利角度来看，中国在收发芯片领域的投入力度也非常大。智慧芽数据显示，以射频收发作为关键词搜索，在170个国家/地区中共计42947条专利，总价值达6,278,372,500美元，其中中国射频收发专利数占全球的69.19%，其次为美国（26.22%）和欧洲（1.25%）。 From the perspective of patent trends, before 2018, the heat in the field of radio frequency transceiver continued to rise, and after 2018, the number of applications decreased year by year, and the proportion of licenses continued to decrease. RF transceiver patent development trend chart, the source of wisdom bud Apple, Qualcomm, OPPO, Huawei, ZTE, vivo, MediaTek and other companies are more concerned about RF transceiver technology, a large number of related technology patents, especially OPPO is most keen to apply for RF transceiver patents, the number of related patents is close to 4,000. RF transceiver applicant ranking analysis, source of wisdom bud When searching for both RF transceiver and chip as keywords, a total of 1,247 patents with a total value of $37,196,100 were found in 170 countries. Among them, the top four are China, the United States, France, and South Korea, accounting for 83.87%, 10.03%, 1.87%, and 1.57% of the total number of global RF transceiver chip patents, respectively. The flow chart of the fifth bureau shows that China and the United States monopolize most of the RF transceiver chip patents, especially China has a huge RF transceiver chip layout in China, but the output patents are less. RF transceiver chip technology source country / region trend analysis, map source | smart bud In the field of RF transceiver chip patents, not only include domestic companies such as ZTE, OPPO, Huawei, Spreadtrum, vivo, but also Xi'an Electronic Science and Technology, China Geological University (Wuhan) and other high schools. RF transceiver chip applicant ranking analysis, source of wisdom bud Antennas - also in the semiconductor industry Looking at the name, the antenna seems to have nothing to do with the chip, but in fact it is also a typical semiconductor industry application. From the mobile phone, to the old straight mobile phone, we have seen a big external antenna, until now, the antenna is still the mobile phone to receive the transmission signal essential device, it is good or bad even determines the mobile phone market living space. According to the structure, mobile phone antennas can be divided into PIFA type, slot type, monopole type, reconfigurable type, lumped parameters and other types.[33]In the end, the ideal antenna must have multi-band, broadband, low cost, low radiation, high performance and other characteristics. Antenna design is a major difficulty in the industry, and today, antennas under 5G include multiple technologies such as multi-band carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and Wi-Fi MIMO, which pose great challenges for antenna tuning, amplifier linearity, power consumption and interference. In addition, the number of antennas in the whole machine is increasing with the complexity of the function, but there is no product to put the antenna outside, and the space left for the antenna inside is also very narrow. In the face of the above difficulties, one solution for the industry is to integrate GPS, Wi-Fi, intermediate frequency, high frequency, super high frequency channels use a common antenna, another method is to use the antenna tuning, each antenna is tuned to the working frequency band, but no matter what kind of design or method, will increase the overall design difficulty, while involving complex material innovation problems.[34] In terms of market space, antennas will grow from $19.81 billion in 2021 to $45.58 billion in 2030 with a CAGR of 9.7%.[35]However, it should be noted that the high-end terminal antenna is still the American manufacturers Amphenol (Amphenol) and Japanese manufacturers Murata (Murata) leading, domestic still need to break through. From a patent perspective, antenna R & D is associated with the consumer electronics market cycle. According to Smart Bud data, a search using antennas as a keyword resulted in 1,223,641 patents in 170 countries with a total value of 145,613,919,800 (US $). From the perspective of patent trends, from 2017 to 2020, the industry has maintained a high enthusiasm for antenna research, while from 2021 to 2022 it will decline back to the level of 2014, which is the time when consumer electronics demand is weak and mobile terminal markets such as mobile phones are down. Antenna patent development trend chart, the source of wisdom bud From the perspective of the proportion of countries, China's antenna patents account for 66.47% of the world, while the United States, Japan, and South Korea are 16.17%, 7.69%, and 2%, respectively. The flow chart of the fifth bureau shows that China's overseas layout in the antenna field is seriously insufficient, compared with the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, there are a large number of patents exported to China, which can be seen as the importance of China's antenna market for the world. Source country / region trend analysis of antenna technology, source of wisdom bud In the field of antennas, Huawei and Qualcomm have more than doubled the number of patents in the third place, while OPPO, vivo, Samsung and ZTE follow closely behind the two, with a large number of patent layouts. Antenna applicant ranking analysis, source of wisdom bud Inside the market, domestic how to go The battlefield of RF chips has always been ruthless, and once the players Freescale, Texas Instruments (TI), Marvell, Nvidia, STE, etc. have withdrawn from the market[36]Existing companies continue to integrate mergers and acquisitions, giving birth to one giant after another that is impossible to reach. For example, Qorvo was merged in 2015 by RF Micro Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (TriQuint Semiconductor), and after the establishment of several mergers and acquisitions, the product line expanded to the Internet of Things, 5G and other fields. Although from the above all kinds of RF chip patents, domestic seems to have reached the peak, but in fact, in more than 20 years of history, RF chip technology changes are not much, thousands of patents of each company in the world constitute an omni-directional blockade on the country.[37] More difficult is that the Matthew effect in the field of RF chips is prominent, the international advanced manufacturers have more than 20 years of experience accumulation, in the face of new products, new applications, new demand, these manufacturers can do quickly and well, coupled with the same design cost of more than 20% difference between domestic and international, in the same price, international manufacturers have obvious advantages.[37] Industry sources also sigh, RF chip industry in the United States in the field of meat, China's Taiwan companies in the soup, Chinese Mainland companies have not even gnawed bones.[36] From the perspective of the development history of domestic RF chips, it is a fickle capital market, never optimistic, to everyone's pursuit, and then to the tide of decline, the field of RF chips has only taken nearly 20 years. In the 2G era, the establishment of Redico marks the beginning of a breakthrough in the field of RF front-end. However, in 2010, 3G became the mainstream of the market, the capital market is still not optimistic about the RF chip market, and there are only a few new players on the track without tin in general microelectronics and only Jie Chuangxin. Until 4G appeared, RF chips became a hot spot in the eyes of capital, scrambling to enter. Before long, the RF chip market was packed with players, HuiZhiwei, Zhuo Shengwei, Feixiang Technology, the Chinese world (now Anruiwei) has been established one after another, outside the market expansion, is gradually winding up the market. These manufacturers start from the relatively mature discrete RF chips, and continue to accumulate experience. During the 5G window period, China will gradually realize the domestic replacement of the low-end models RF front-end, accumulate module capabilities, and move toward the full category supply.[38], Zhuo Shengwei, Wei Jie Chuangxin, Rui Shi Chuangxin, Fei Xiang Technology, Hui Zhi Microelectronics and other companies have also launched RF front-end module products and mass production.[39] It should be pointed out that although local manufacturers have continued to achieve breakthroughs in RF switches, low-noise amplifiers and other segments, they still lack high-end products and are highly dependent on imports.[40] Domestic RF chip key events, tabulation References Semiconductor Industry Watch[41][42], Set Micro Net[43]Dual-Use Technologies and Products[44] When the domestic radio frequency chip track crowded with players, the volume began, once the meat and potatoes began to appear strange. In 2020, the gross profit margin of RF front-end chips was as low as 20%, the market continued to hit a new low, at that time, most start-ups with ideals, against Skyworks, Qorvo, Qualcomm a group of high-end chip enterprises, but in a year or two later the product can not even match with the domestic first-line brand, and even developed mature chips such as 2G and 3G, selling at a price has become the last lifeline for startups. In fact, gross profit exaggeration to such a point, startups do not need to do mature low-end products domestic replacement, should pay attention to baseband chips, high-end RF chips such as hard bones. [45][46] This situation has not changed after two years. In 2022, it was reported that the gross profit margin of PA chips was as low as single digits, the loss of goods has become the norm, and head manufacturers hope to speed up the reshuffle of the industry through such an effect. Already in the midst of gunfire, but the market is even more cruel, the consumer electronics market continues to decline, cut down the tide, go to inventory to make the roll-in market more rolling, price reduction is the only thing these companies can do.[47] Under the negative market mood, the RF chip enterprise listed against the wall has also become expected. On January 14, 2022, Science and Technology Innovation Board Baseband Chip's first Yuejie technology opened with a break, with a low bid of 20.99%; on January 27, 2022, it fell 9.18% on the day of the listing of radium technology; and on April 12, 2022, it also fell 36.04% on the first day of listing with major customers such as Xiaomi and OPPO. This kind of market decline is still difficult to reverse, trapped in the quagmire of domestic RF chip enterprises can not come to the market recovery, waiting for them only to shuffle. Industry insiders also said that the traditional industry investment thinking can not simply replace the chip industry, if still according to the previous thinking to invest, the industry will still be stuck in the quagmire.[48] After incomplete statistics, since 2021, the financing events related to the radio frequency field have slowed down significantly. Radio frequency field financing events in the past two years are not complete statistics, tabulating hard technology in a nutshell References Company Announcement Although the RF chip does not bring the gospel for the domestic market, but there is no independent product, a mobile phone will be expensive, international manufacturers will rely on monopoly advantages, homeopathic supply prices for the terminal.[49] Well, how should domestic RF chips develop? the hard technology of fruit shell holds that:
RF chip still belongs to the field of semiconductor investment, with the characteristics of large construction investment, long return cycle, high technical barriers, many investment institutions still lack of understanding and judgment on it, resulting in some of the projects put into production did not meet expectations, the level has not been properly improved;[44]
RF chip design experience is greater than theory, and some reliable and effective technical solutions may be difficult for team engineers to master. Many institutions, companies and universities engaged in RF chips have been in the exploration stage for a long time, and the technology has been slow to advance, and there are repetitive and basic R & D attempts, which require all parties to reach a consensus to accelerate the capture of core issues;
The shortage of semiconductor talents is especially serious in the RF field. There are huge differences in the final simulation and test indicators of the chip layout made by different engineers of the same structure circuit. At the same time, the domestic talent training model is single, and it is necessary to further strengthen talent training and continuously promote the integration of production, learning and research.[44]
Domestic production cannot be achieved overnight, and Skyworks, Qorvo and other giants have a net profit of four to five billion yuan a year. The net profit of domestic first-tier enterprises is only about 500 million yuan a year. Although system manufacturers are eager to have diversified upstream supply, domestic chip manufacturers lack the opportunity to verify. Some RF chip manufacturers have appealed to system manufacturers to keep an open and cooperative attitude and to evaluate and analyze devices.[50]
The world is being affected by the economy and consumer electronics supply and demand, not only domestic companies have a hard time, so how to survive in the downward cycle will be a problem that RF chip companies must consider.
Although the domestic RF chip market seems brilliant at this stage, with a large number of players and products, However, it still lacks high-end RF front-end chips, baseband chips, RF transceiver chips, and high-end antennas. Unlike other chips, the investment logic and thinking of slow RF chips are different, and the return cycle is longer. With 6G, Wi-Fi 7, UWB gradually moving to mobile phones, the market needs to further integrate mergers and acquisitions, and everything may be back on track. There are some hot items of electronic components in stock today. FNB35060T STPS30M100DJF-TR AM5728BABCXA TL594INSR LM5122MH LTC4365HTS8#TRPBF DS90UB941ASRTDRQ1 LTC4365HTS8#PBF TJA1055T/1J ATXMEGA384C3-MH STM32F756IGT6 TMS5700714APGEQQ1 IKP20N65H5XKSA1 OPA2170AQDGKRQ1 NCP1377DR2G VN5T006ASP-E AP64350QSP-13 MK10DX256VLL7 XC6VSX315T-1FFG1156I ISO7842DWW EPM570T144I5N FS100R12KT4G LPC1857FET256 PM5990B-FEI MK10DX256VLL7 LTC2404IG#TRPBF AK4558EN ATSAM4LC8CA-CFU HMC713LP3E PESD5V0L7BAS R1LV1616RSA-7SI R1LV1616RSA-7SR R2A20152NSW0 ADS7924IRTER ATMEGA640V-8AU MC78M15CD ATSAML10E14A-AF SN74LV14APWR MC56F8367VPYE CAM204BE0003 CC2591RGVR TS5A3359DCUR STM802TM6F LT3756EUD-1#PBF STM690TM6F MK10DX256VLL7 FS32K116LFT0MLFR XC7K325T-2FFG900I TPS74501PQWDRBRQ1 MMBF5484 FS32K116LFT0MLFR SAF3602EL LTC2404IG#TRPBF TLE8082ESXUMA1 MPC5554MVR132 10M02SCE144A7G ATXMEGA384C3-MHF TLS203B0EJV33XUMA1 TLS203B0EJV REF3030AIDBZ BSP752T MC7448TVU1267ND ADA4817-1ACPZ-R7 MC74HC4851ADR2G PIC18F26K20-I/SS ATSAMD21J18A-AU TLE75620ESTXUMA1 XC2C384-10TQG144C ACS714LLCTR-05B-T TLF35584QVVS1 TPS92661QPHPRQ1 DSPIC30F4011-20E/PT HI3519ARFCV100 RNA51951AUPH1 TPS92661QPHPRQ1 ISO7842DWW FSB70250 TS3A24159DGSR FH82C246 STCS2ASPR LM2671MX-ADJ/NOPB SAK-C167CS-LM CA+ XC7Z035-2FFG9001 LTC4364HDE-2 AD7656BSTZ VN800STR-E FS200R06KE3 VND830PTR-E TLV493DA1B6HTSA2 FS100R12KT4G STFW3N150 NLU1GT126CMUTCG SAK-TC277TP-64F200NDC CC1310F128RSMR LM359 MPXH6400A
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Logic chips, power supply chips, Integrated circuits!