1. Taiwan's DRAM manufacturers shipping ZTE also need to be approved;
Gathering micro-network news, Taiwan's 'Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Bureau's control order for the shipment of Chungxing components to semiconductor manufacturers was burned into the DRAM industry. Taiwan’s largest memory chip maker South Asia Branch confirmed that it has received official requests to ship ZTE After the application is approved and approval is released, the company will be affected by ZTE's short-term shipment.
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a seven-year export control ban to ZTE on the 17th of last month, requiring all American companies not to sell components to ZTE. Taiwan's 'Ministry of Economic Affairs'’s Bureau of International Trade subsequently issued an official document to MediaTek requesting To ship to ZTE, we must submit an application in accordance with the import and export control regulations.
In the past, the outside world originally used the relevant measures of the China Council for International Trade and Media, and MediaTek subsequently filed an application for approval. Today, it is reported that the South Asian Branch has also been subject to regulation, which means that the relevant incidents have extended from the mobile-phone communications related areas to the DRAM industry, which has caused great concern in the industry.
South Asia Branch confirmed that it has received relevant requests from government agencies and will apply to the 'Ministry of Economy' to sell key memory to ZTE in the near future. It is waiting for a reply from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
South Asia Branch did not disclose the actual amount of ZTE’s monthly shipments. It merely stated that ZTE is a client of the company. Although the proportion of revenue is not high, according to the requirements of the 'Ministry of Economy', the application has been submitted for review as long as the other party guarantees The memory used will not be used to deliver to areas that violate the United States ban, or whether it can be sold to ZTE. However, in the short term, South Asia Branch’s shipment of ZTE has been delayed due to the application process.
The South Asian Branch emphasized that currently there is a shortage of DRAM supply, and the sources of goods are very popular. We do not worry that the US’s export control to ZTE will affect the business of South Asia Branch. However, if Huawei is also sanctioned by the United States, its impact may be greater than that of ZTE. Pay close attention to follow-up development.
2. Zhang Zhongmou: Trade Terror and Apple Supply Chain;
TSMC’s founder and chairman, Zhang Zhongmou, interviewed by the Financial Times warned that trade disputes between the United States and China may fall into the Apple supply chain.
Zhang Zhongmou, who will hand over the bar, said: “This is a new challenge and it is a challenge that I have not faced in the past. However, my successor will face this risk.” “What will they do? I don’t know.” TSMC Is the main supplier of apple iPhone processor chip.
Before Zhang Zhongmou made the above remarks, the Trump administration in the United States has asked China to reduce the U.S. surplus of 337 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 and cut subsidies for emerging industries. The U.S. and China have faced a threat of tariffs for several weeks. Rising trend.
Although TSMC’s core processor chips for Apple’s iPhone are mostly manufactured in factories in Taiwan, Zhang Zhongmou’s concerns are that if the United States increases tariffs, the broader mobile phone supply chain will be affected. TSMC’s annual revenue of US$33 billion, About half are from mobile devices.
He also commented on the impact of the US-China full-scale trade war on deep integration into global supply chain companies. He said: “A large number of end products are assembled in mainland China, so trade disputes between the US and China may also affect us.”
Oliver Cox, a portfolio manager at the Morgan Pacific Funding Technology Fund, said that although the new tariffs in the United States may impose cost pressures on Apple in the short term, he does not believe there is a long-term impact. Apple and its supply chain are "adapting to change." And have demonstrated high flexibility in terms of cost and low cost."
However, Zhang Zhongmou worried that the confrontation between Washington and Beijing may be worse than the US-Japan trade war he experienced in the 1970s. This was a trade dispute he had experienced at the time when Texas Instruments led a semiconductor division. Say: "We have resolved peacefully, and both the United States and Japan are satisfied." "This time it may not be so friendly. It does not seem so friendly at the moment."
Iris Pang, an economist at Greater China in ING, said that the levy of new tariffs on electronics products in mainland China will increase the cost of electronic components shipped from the mainland to the United States. "The impact on the supply chain will then increase. Very complicated".
Sam Kao of Yuanda Securities said that Apple suppliers without major production bases outside mainland China will face the highest risk. He listed electronics manufacturers that will be under pressure due to US-China trade disputes, including Hon Hai and Heshuo. , Wistron and other companies.
Analysts at Moodys, an international assessment agency, said that some technology-related manufacturers in mainland China will be subject to the "direct shock" of the new U.S. tariffs, but if they only review this impact, they will "undervalue" China. The impact of the mainland economy.
3.5G Business Opportunity swells again in arms chip business arms competition;
The core 5G NSA standard was established at the end of 2017, and the 5G NR SA was also proposed in 2018. This means that the commercialization of 5G is not far behind. In order to seize the business opportunities in the 5G market, a new generation of semiconductor industry solutions has emerged, and then lifted. A new wave of arms races.
3GPP's first 5G version Rel.15 was officially frozen in December 2017. The non-independent networking (NSA) core standard has been frozen, which means that the first phase of the first version of the 5G new radio (5G NR) has been Completed, six months ahead of schedule.
On the other hand, in accordance with the third phase test plan for China's 5G technology R&D trials, the 5G NSA and 5G independent (SA) architecture specifications will be established in 2018, and the 5G NSA architecture will be used for indoor and out-field testing. In 2018, Q2 will complete indoor and outdoor operations. Environmental construction; 2018 Q3 to 2018 Q4 completed indoor and outdoor testing of the 5G SA architecture; 2018 Q4 initiated 5G terminal and interoperability testing. This shows that 5G commercial time can be said to be non-stop, and semiconductor vendors are fast-paced, Competing to launch a new generation of solutions to strengthen market forces and set off a new round of 5G arms race.
Modem chip sampling / network simulation Qualcomm grab 5G market action frequently
In order to attack the 5G NR business opportunities, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X50 5G modem chip in 2017, and announced on 2018 MWC that the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem chip will deliver samples. This product is the world's first Category 20 LTE modem chip, Not only can support up to 2Gbps download speed, but also strengthen the 5G new radio multi-mode device and network development on the LTE infrastructure.
Snapdragon X24 supports up to 7 carrier aggregations on the downlink, 4x4 MIMO on up to 5 aggregated LTE carriers, and a total of up to 20 LTE coexisting spatial streams, enabling devices equipped with Snapdragon X24 LTE modem chips to be utilized Spectral resources provided by all mobile telecom operators, whether it is authorized spectrum or authorized auxiliary access (LAA).
In addition, by supporting full-dimension multiple-input multiple-output (FD-MIMO) large-scale antenna technology, the Snapdragon X24 can lay the foundation for future 5G new radio networks to further increase system capacity. Also on the uplink link, The product can support Category 20, 256-QAM modulation, 3x20MHz carrier aggregation.
On the other hand, Qualcomm also conducted two independent network simulation experiments. The first experiment emulates an NSA 5G new radio network in Frankfurt, Germany. It operates on the 3.5 GHz spectrum with a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The bottom layer is matched with a Gigabit-class LTE network. 5 LTE frequency bands operate.
The second experimental simulation is a hypothetical NSA 5G new radio network in San Francisco, Calif., operating on a 28 MHz millimeter-wave spectrum with a bandwidth of 800 MHz. The underlying Gigabit-class LTE network spans four LTE licensed frequency bands and multiple grant-assisted access ( LAA) band operation.
Both of the above network simulations use the existing base stations in Frankfurt and San Francisco to achieve the parallel capability of the 5G new radio base station and the existing real LTE base station.
Meet 5G communication requirements ADI strengthens RF chip performance
Because 5G adopts large-scale antenna array technology, it has higher requirements for the integration degree, bandwidth and cost of RF components. For the high-frequency millimeter-wave band, RF link components based on SiGe SOI process will replace the GaAs process and become mainstream. The advantage is that it can improve program integration and reduce costs.
On the other hand, integration level and cost are also one of the major challenges for 5G low-frequency RF front-end designs. With the newly allocated 4.9GHz band, the performance and maturity of related RF components still needs to be improved.
The strategic market for China's ADI Communications Infrastructure Business Unit in China understands Yong (figure 1) that the main technical feature of high-frequency millimeter-wave is frequency bandwidth, which is suitable for all kinds of broadband signal processing; small antenna size, narrow beam, good directionality , High spatial resolution, and high tracking accuracy. As far as the disadvantages are concerned, it is mainly susceptible to atmospheric attenuation and absorption; High-frequency millimeter waves are easily blocked and absorbed in space due to their small wavelength, which also leads to Its effect distance cannot be too far.
Figure 1 The strategic market in China of ADI's Communications Infrastructure Business Unit, Understanding Yong, said that the integration and cost are the main challenges for 5G low-frequency RF front-end design.
Therefore, PAs, LNAs, RF Switches, RF filters/Duplexers, and antennas are all key components of 5G RF signal links. The performance pointers will directly affect the wireless pointers of 5G base stations, such as the launch of hybrids. The dispersion and reception sensitivity, in turn, affect the performance and capacity of the system.
To this end, ADI is working at the same time in the 5G high frequency and low frequency fields, and continues to increase R&D investment to introduce innovative RF solutions to lead the market and promote the commercial process of 5G. Currently, the company is targeting 5G based on the SiGe process in the high frequency area. Higher integration and more cost-effective millimeter-wave RF solutions; 28 MHz CMOS RF sampling data converters for high bandwidth; and higher integration in low-frequency applications, lower power RF signals Chain integration plan.
Xie pointed out that the development trend and market driving force of mobile communications are large-capacity, large-scale connections and intelligence. In response to the rapid growth of the demand for network connectivity, the connection of 5G technology is cross-industry and cross-domain; and it is based on large-scale machine-based communication. With mMTC, URLLC and eMBB, 5G creates a rich market opportunity for all consumers and economies.
Xie further explained that early stages of 5G development will change mobile broadband, operators will actively seek incremental opportunities, and expand key enterprise-level vertical markets; and the main influence of the latter stage will be displayed in the new intelligent automation industrial driving force. On the RF components, we must consider the design of a common platform to support these three scenarios at the same time.
Xie Yong believes that 2018 is a key year for the 5G standard, technology R&D and industrial maturity. It is also 5G stepping out of the laboratories and more in response to the process of quasi-commercial transformation. In 2018, the standardization of 5G key technologies will become more and more mature. Become a hot spot; Rel-15 moves to perfection, Rel-16 discusses in depth; After eMBB, high-frequency technologies and technologies with lower latency and higher reliability will become hot spots; The new 5G core network SBA architecture will be further improved. Slicing extends from slicing capabilities toward automated management; to support broader application scenarios.
New Generation of 5G NR Modem Boosts Intel to Release 5G Computer in 2019
In order to speed up the 5G deployment, Intel is equipped with 5G NR multi-mode modems - Intel XMM 8000 series and Intel XMM 8060. Intel XMM 8000 series can operate at frequencies below 6GHz and high-frequency millimeter-wave frequencies to connect various devices. To 5G networks, including PCs, mobile phones, fixed wireless client devices (CPE), and even vehicles.
The Intel XMM 8060 offers multimode support, including full 5G NSA and SA, multiple 2G, 3G networks (including CDMA), and 4G legacy mode. The product is expected to ship with the client device in mid 2019 and is expected to Before the widespread deployment of 5G networks in 2020, accelerate the deployment of 5G devices.
At the same time, Intel is also striving to accelerate 5G development through 5G modems, announcing that it is currently working with Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft to use the Intel XMM 8000 series to connect 5G networks. Function import Windows PC, estimate the first high-performance personal computer containing 5G networking function will ask the market in the second half of 2019.
Intel pointed out that personal computers are the central hub for handling amazing amounts of data. The coming of the 5G generation will not only bring a lot of data to be processed, but also bring new experiences for personal computer users. Imagine enjoying anywhere without wires Virtual Reality; or downloading files at a speed of 250MB per second in the parking lot; even playing multiplayer games while on the road from driving to school. With the transformation of this wave of data, personal computers will inevitably have to Get ready for 5G.
Qualcomm/Huawei made a strong push to launch the 5G smart phone in 2019
The 5G business timeline continues to accelerate. Under the active layout of various chip makers, the first 5G smart phone is more likely to be unveiled in 2019. According to Gartner research, it has been a while since Qualcomm announced the first 5G modem chipset. , And completed the first mobile device 5G online test in October 2017. Although Qualcomm's modem size has been small enough to fit into a smart phone, but there is still some distance from the commercialization and formal launch of 5G products.
Gartner believes that 2018 is expected to be more tested and redesigned for 5G modems, and commercial 5G products will be available in 2019, and it is estimated that 5G smart phone shipments will reach 9 million in 2019. 2021 will reach 150 million.
Considering the market potential of 5G mobile phones, Huawei and Qualcomm have accelerated the deployment of 5G mobile phones. Huawei recently released the brand's first 3GPP standard 5G commercial chip Baron 5G01 (Balong 5G01), and the first 3GPP standard 5G based on the chip commercial Terminal equipment. It is expected to launch the first 5G smartphone in the fourth quarter of 2019.
As for Qualcomm, it is claimed that several wireless network operators have used its Snapdragon X50 5G modem chip to perform over-the-air 5G radio operation trials below 6 GHz and mmWave. Including AT&T, British Telecom, China Mobile, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, etc., all will conduct trials based on the 3G Release 15 5G new radio standard.
Qualcomm said that the company will start 5G new radio field trials with operators from 2018 to early 2019. It is expected that commercial deployment of 5G new radio networks will begin in 2019, and multi-mode smart phones will be launched.
The 5G mobile phone is swift, and Lin Yuting, senior project manager of the Intellectual Systems Research Institute of the Intellectual Property Policy Institute (Figure 2) stated that with the 5G infrastructure not yet in place, the 5G smartphone launched in 2019 is more likely to adopt “dual modules”. The method, that is, the mobile phone contains 4G LTE and 5G module; At the same time, because the high frequency band is not yet determined, the 5G mobile phone will first develop towards the frequency band below 6GHz.
Figure 2 Lin Yanting, Senior Project Manager of the Institute of Intelligent Systems Research, pointed out that the 5G mobile phones launched in the market may adopt the “dual module” design method first.
Lin Yuting reminded that although the current major chip makers have invested in the 5G smart phone market, however, excessively high unit prices may become one of the keys to the development of 5G smart phones.
Lin Yuting further explained that currently 4G mobile phones are sufficient for most consumers, and although 5G mobile phones have better computing power and transmission efficiency, their high prices may be a key factor that consumers may find discouraging. Will be willing to spend extra money to buy 5G mobile phones, to enjoy those who really need the high-performance features, will be the focus of future mobile phone chip makers.
Internet of Things is the focus of 5G deployment URLLC is used for business development
With huge business opportunities in 5G, semiconductor manufacturers competed to release relevant solutions and strived to launch terminal commercial products in 2019. Li Yingfang, an engineer of the Forward-Looking Communication System Center of the Intelligent Systems Research Institute of ICBC (Figure 3) pointed out that the biggest differences between 5G and 4G are 5G. The scope of application is not only limited to mobile phones, but also extends to various areas of the Internet of Things, such as industry, medical care, and families. As a result, the International Mobile Communications Organization (IMT) has developed three application directions of eMBB, URLLC and mMTC. URLLC has been actively involved in the development of the industry due to the low latency requirements of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Figure 3 Li Yingfang, engineer of the Forward-Looking Communication System Center of the Institute of Intelligent Systems Research, Institute of Information Technology, explains that the application scope of 5G has expanded from mobile phones to various fields of the Internet of Things.
Cai Zongxi, a senior engineer of the Forward-looking Communication System Center of the Institute of Intelligent Systems Research, said that the current construction of eMBB is mostly below 6 GHz, but eMBB will play a greater role after setting out in the 5G high-frequency band. Its business services will probably begin to sprout after 2020 or 2021.
The application feature of mMTC is to connect a large number of component devices, to send a lower amount of data, and to have a lower manufacturing cost and a very long battery life. This feature is similar to NB-IoT, Sigfox or LoRa, and the competitors faced Too many operators must wait and see until a suitable business model is found and then develop.
As for URLLC, its standards include that the user plane's delay part should be as low as 0.5ms or less, and the block error rate (BLER) should reach 10-5 or less (TR 38.913) with a delay of 1ms and a packet size of 32 bytes. To meet the application of high reliability such as IIoT, V2X (error rate is lower than 10-5) and low time delay (less than 1 millisecond).
Li Yingfang said that Industry 4.0 is a hot topic in the market, and URLLC specifications exactly meet the deployment requirements of IIoT, and its frequency band should fall between 3.4GHz and 3.8GHz. Unlike eMBB, it is still necessary to wait for the completion of high-frequency spectrum planning; therefore , Several companies have started to conduct URLLC related tests, such as Huawei, Qualcomm, etc.
In summary, after the 5G NSA core standard was finalized, the market started a new round of arms race, and semiconductor companies launched relevant solutions to improve network capacity and maximise spectrum efficiency, resulting in a more stunning user experience. Such as immersive 360-degree video, networked cloud computing, etc., strive to enter the 5G commercial stage in 2019.
4. The 'kind' diamonds in the laboratory are more pure than natural diamonds
Natural diamonds are expensive. Consumers eager to have a high-purity diamond may consider British scientists' 'kinds' of diamonds in the lab. Such synthetic diamonds are purer than natural diamonds, and their price is 20% cheaper.
Professor Oliver Williams of the University of Cardiff, United Kingdom, led a team to manufacture diamonds for semiconductor research. They first put a natural diamond as a 'seed' into a vacuum chamber to remove impurities from the air and then pump it to the vacuum chamber. Into the high-temperature gas of 3000 degrees Celsius methane and hydrogen gas, forming a highly charged plasma. Due to the higher temperature, the two gases quickly split. The carbon atoms split from the methane gas are collected in the 'seed diamond' and naturally mimic this natural diamond. The crystal structure is 'grown' at a rate of 0.006 mm per hour. In a laboratory environment, a 1-carat diamond can be 'bred' in a few days.
The same technique can be used to produce diamonds for jewelry. Professor Williams said that the purity of the diamonds produced in this kind of laboratory is higher than almost any substance found in nature. He told the British Sky News Channel: 'The best 'planter' (Produced diamonds) There is only one impurity per trillion atoms. 'This artificial diamond is 15% to 20% cheaper than an equivalent natural diamond.
This technology is expected to completely subvert the diamond industry. There have been several major companies trying to 'plant' jewelry diamonds. However, the chairman of the Diamond Manufacturers Association Jean-Marc Liebherr believes that even if the appearance of the diamond is difficult to distinguish, artificial diamonds And natural diamonds are still of different value. Because, the value of jewelry depends to a certain extent on 'emotional quality'.