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Enter 5G Chip Camp, Purple Light Zhanrui 6 Nano Chip Will Carry Mobile Phone Next Year

2020/11/21 1:59:00 9

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Ziguang zhanrui, the leading IC design leader in China, has started a series of changes in the past two years, from the management team, development strategy, to the company's management system are deeply updated.

At the capital level, Ziguang zhanrui has started the preparation for the listing of the science and technology innovation board, and is expected to officially land on the science and technology innovation board in 2021; at the product level, Ziguang zhanrui has also accelerated the 5g product layout, including mobile phone chips, Internet of things chips, automotive chips, etc.

"Now we may launch nearly four main line products a year. In the future, the development speed will be faster and faster, because the R & D efficiency has been greatly improved, which is also brought about by the change of management system." Chu Qing, chief executive officer of Ziguang zhanrui, said in an interview with the 21st century economic report and other media, "next year is a great year to look forward to, because the new products planned by the new team will be launched one after another in the second half of this year."

During the recent 2020 purple light zhanrui Market Summit, zhanrui released a number of products, such as Unicom's second generation 5g CPE vn007 +, 5g RF front-end complete solutions, Nb IOT chip v8811 for 5g R16, intelligent cockpit chip solution a7862, vehicle specification level dual frequency positioning chip a2395 and flagship smart watch platform w517.

At the same time, the 5g mobile phone chip Huben t7520, which is the 5g SOC mobile platform released by Ziguang zhanrui at the beginning of this year, is the world's first 6nm EUV process chip.

Zhou Chen, executive vice president of Ziguang zhanrui, told reporters that the t7520 will soon reach the CS (commercial sample) state. A series of 5g SOC products based on t520 are also on the way. We will see updated products soon. Next year, mobile phones equipped with zhanrui 6nm 5g chip will be mass produced.

Two years ahead of schedule

After Ziguang zhanrui's restructuring, the outside world has paid much attention to its product and business progress, especially in the 5g introduction period. It is crucial for Ziguang zhanrui to seize the opportunity during the intergenerational upgrading of communication.

Chu Qing recalled: "the earliest time to establish Spreadtrum was from the 2G era. The progress of 2 / 3 / 4G products was much behind the industry's leading level. Last year, we spent one year to advance the overall plan of the first 5g chip by two years. When I joined zhanrui in December 2018, the original plan was to have the first 5g chip around June 2022. But in fact, on May 15, this year, the 5g mobile phone of our first mobile phone customer had been put into mass production and retail, which was also a great change. Previous products were always delayed, but now they are greatly improved. "

At the same time, all business systems of Ziguang zhanrui have been overturned and re established. "Originally, all businesses were concentrated in one business unit, the consumer electronics business unit. Then we established the industrial electronics business unit. In the first year, the sales volume of the industrial electronic business unit was almost 100 million US dollars, and the growth rate of this year may still reach 150%." Chu Qing said.

In terms of customer development, Ziguang zhanrui is also reorganizing. In the field of consumer electronics, Zhou Chen said: "we are constantly optimizing the customer structure. The number of customers is not the most important. Even in the past few months, we have stopped some past customers. We must put our limited resources into the customers that can generate the most value. For example, for mobile phone related platforms, in the past year, we have introduced a lot of new brand customers, and some of them have not been introduced before. However, the equivalent of users who will be promoted is very large. The equivalent of a project may be the number of dozens of customers. "

As for the impact of the epidemic, Zhou Chen said that most of the mobile phones before zhanrui were sold overseas, so the first half of the year was greatly affected by the epidemic. Since July, the mobile phone business has fully recovered to the level of the same period last year, "even since September, we have achieved a significant growth every month compared with the same period last year. In fact, we will have a good growth in the whole year. "

Talking about the next product trend judgment, Zhou Chen told reporters that affected by the epidemic situation and the demand for high cost performance, low-end 4G devices have increased very fast this year, "because we have more medium and low-end 4G devices, all customers have increased year-on-year this year, and this trend may still exist in the next two or three years, three or five years."

Secondly, "the demand for large screen products has also increased significantly. In fact, the demand we received for such products this year is three times higher than that in previous years. There is a large amount of overseas demand, because we have to solve the problem of online education." Zhou Chen said.

In addition, the 5g mobile phone market will continue to grow next year. According to the strategy analytics report, the global sales of 5g mobile phones are expected to reach 250 million units this year, with a year-on-year growth of 1282%. In 2021, the shipment volume of 5g smart phones will reach 450 million to 550 million, at least twice the total volume this year. In the process of 5g mobile phone popularization, chip manufacturers are also stepping up mass production and commercial use.

5g chip market competition

After Intel sold baseband chip business, 5g chip market players are even more numerous. At present, only Hisilicon and Samsung, and apple, which are still under research and development, have successfully developed baseband chips by Intel. However, there are only three non self-developed manufacturers, namely, Qualcomm, MediaTek and purple light zhanrui.

The competition between them is also multi-level. On the one hand, it is the choice of advanced manufacturing process. At present, most of the high-end 5g mobile phones, including apple, are equipped with high-end 7-nanometer baseband chips. Huawei has adopted its own 5-nanometer 5g SOC chip. However, the 5-nanometer 5g chip released by Qualcomm will be used in mobile phones next year, and Samsung's latest 5g chip has also selected 5nm. Recently, MediaTek said that it will launch a 6nm 5g chip, and zhanrui has chosen the 6-nm process.

When talking about why zhanrui chose the 6-nanometer process, Chu Qing said: "the process node selection itself is very fatal for semiconductor companies. Especially in the post Moore era, 6nm is a very important node, which is an improvement based on the strong foundation of 7Nm. We chose 6 nanometers because the application of EUV is more mature and the supply is sufficient. "

He also mentioned the cost considerations: "5nm is a step deeper than 6nm and 7Nm in terms of use, but it will bring new problems. For example, EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography machine), EUV in the use of 5nm more than 6nm, 7Nm, but can it reduce the cost? It's a huge question mark

"The companies that rush into the process wall will encounter similar problems next year. Which level to choose will lead to the situation of multiple nodes coming out in parallel," Chu Qing told reporters. "Choosing it (process) is really like gambling. You have to lock in this node at least 18 months in advance, or develop it by yourself, and its IP has mature and immature problems."

And every process technology leap forward, is a money burning game, full of technical challenges. With the mass production and commercial use of more chip products, the 5g chip market pattern in 2021 will also have new changes.

On the other hand, with the gradual reduction of 5g mobile phone cost and the popularity of thousand yuan mobile phone, the competition of 5g chip also covers all price segments of high, middle and low-end products. The 6-nanometer chip has its advantages in the mid-range market, and the competition has become more intense. The white paper "5g digital world built on chip" jointly released by Ziguang zhanrui and omdia mentioned that in 2019 and the first half of 2020, the competition stage of 5g baseband chips is mainly concentrated in high-end flagship models. With the maturity of production capacity, there has been a significant decline, and the midrange chip has become the coveted target of all manufacturers.

At the same time, chip manufacturers are not only focusing on mobile phones, 5g in various application areas of positive competition is unfolding. The R16 version of 5g NR standard was frozen by 3GPP a few months ago, and the R17 version standard is also being formulated. The white paper points out that this means the beginning of another round of market competition, "only the target market is no longer limited to mobile phones and other consumer electronic products, but more covers the Internet of things, industrial automation, smart city and other new application scenarios. 5g and other communication chips will be carried on the terminal equipment with more diversified and higher requirements to support the ecology of the whole digital process. Such a huge and attractive market will become the new highland that the next communication chip manufacturers are scrambling to occupy. "

In addition, another variable in the 5g market next year is Huawei. Talking about the progress of the cooperation between zhanrui and Huawei, Zhou Chen said: "we have always emphasized compliance. We pay special attention to this matter whether with Huawei or with any company. In the current situation, we have strengthened the regulation and compliance. For all products, all customers are emphasizing compliance in all aspects of our agreements, including R & D. therefore, we have no more special measures. "

 

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