1. Under the cover of Apple's Qualcomm, the wireless headphone chip market is still rushing out of this domestic dark horse;
Gathering micro-messages (Reporter / Deng Wenbiao), wireless Bluetooth headsets are becoming another battlefield for intelligent voice interactions in addition to smart speakers. Cell phone brand manufacturers, Internet companies and traditional hardware manufacturers have launched their own wireless headsets. However, they want to The volume of such a small wireless headset makes smart audio functional, and the challenge to the upstream chip solution manufacturers is very great.
At present, wireless headset chips are mainly divided into three major technology camps. They are Apple, Qualcomm and local IC vendors Hengxuan Technology. Among them, Apple's self-developed product performance experience is the best. Qualcomm's wireless headset dual-pass solution is not optimistic, Hengxuan is another way. , Bypassing Apple and Qualcomm patents, and has made Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu and other terminal manufacturers.
Apple AirPods set patent containment
Since the iPhone 7 began to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack, not only the USB-C headset, but also the prosperity of the wireless Bluetooth headset, this can be seen from Apple's AirPods. Currently, in addition to Apple, Samsung, Terminal manufacturers such as Sony, Huawei, and Xiaomi have all started to launch wireless headsets. The market demand for wireless headsets has been rapidly activated. However, none of the non-AirPods with the best performance experience are available. Since the launch in December 2016, the supply of AirPod has been in short supply Analyst Guo Mingyi once revealed that AirPod shipments reached 13 million units in 2017, and it is expected that Apple's AirPod shipments in 2018 will be double that of 2017, with specific figures ranging from 26 million to 28 million.
How did Apple AirPod do this? Gao Heng, vice president of business development at Heng Xuan Science and Technology Co., Ltd. told the Microweb at the Songshan Lake China IC Innovation Summit in 2018 that the Apple AirPods use wireless ear-to-ear methods before Apple came out. After several years of pre-research, for the core connection experience of wireless headphones, lack of sound quality, etc., Apple adopted a very clever way to solve these problems, and developed a series of patents around the wireless ear, and other manufacturers did not Use Apple's program to do it.
This means that Apple has developed a series of patents around the wireless ear, which basically blocked the design route. What is the design route for Apple's wireless headset solution?
Gao Hao said that, in simple terms, Apple's wireless headset is a signal emitted by the iPhone, the two headsets can receive at the same time, at the same time between the two headsets to deal with many things, such as the synchronization of the signal, the sound synchronization, etc., around these Apple All have applied for a large number of patents, so now neither Qualcomm nor Heng Xuan can use this method. Most of the programs now use the mobile phone to transmit signals to a headset, and the headset forwards the signal to another headset. , This program is definitely not Apple's two headphones synchronous launch well, but also in the Bluetooth 2.4GHz headband transmission process interference and signal loss and other issues.
This is why many wireless headset users are very difficult to disconnect the Apple AirPods, rather than Apple's wireless headset is easy to drop the reasons. Among them, the first is due to Bluetooth 2.4G band interference issues, the second is because The signal is weak when passing through the head, and it is more likely to be interfered and dropped.
According to industry sources, the biggest difficulty of this split type of AirPods is the ear connection. The existing Bluetooth wireless connection scheme either fails to meet the low latency requirement, or it cannot perform anti-jamming and frequent dropped calls. The customized wireless headset chip for Apple. W1 uses a proprietary protocol, in which the W1 chip and the supporting antenna have made more than 20 different schemes, and all have registered patents, and other manufacturers can find it.
The biggest bottleneck in Qualcomm is itself
Under the containment of a large number of patents for Apple AirPods, how did Qualcomm's wireless headset chip solution break through?
Gao Hao said that Qualcomm’s wireless headsets use a twin-shot scheme, which means that the phone simultaneously transmits two Bluetooth signals to the left and right ears. However, the usual mobile phones are connected to a Bluetooth device by default. There is no way to transmit two sets of Bluetooth signals at the same time. The two Bluetooth headsets (with their left ear and right ear connected) are difficult to achieve in the industry and have a lot of compatibility problems.
In the compatibility issue of Qualcomm's twin-engine solution, because Apple's mobile phone does not support dual-family, Samsung phones do not support dual-fat, and Huawei does not support dual-family phones. These mobile phone manufacturers do not use Qualcomm processor platform, so the dual-solution wireless Headphones are not compatible with non-Qualcomm mobile phones and can only be used with Qualcomm processors.
Why does Qualcomm insist on a dual-play plan? Insiders said that the route of Qualcomm's dual-headphone dual-pass solution is correct, because Apple has blocked the optimal route, and all registered patents are registered. Qualcomm has to do it. It is necessary to bypass Apple's patent, but the side effects of the dual-engineering solution are obvious. It is a compatibility issue. The bottleneck of resolution is also its own.
In comparison, Apple's wireless headset solution uses the iPhone to transmit a Bluetooth signal. Both headsets receive signals at the same time. Qualcomm's dual-transmission scheme uses the mobile phone to transmit two signals, which are sent to the left and right sides respectively, and the left and right ears are synchronized again. The problem will be more. The traditional mobile phone emits a Bluetooth signal, only one signal is transmitted. Now the high-pass solution needs to send out two signals. It can only be realized based on the Qualcomm Nine Dragons platform. Others adopt MTK, Hass, Spreadtrum. The processor platform's mobile phone will have compatibility issues.
More importantly, Qualcomm now announced that only the Xiaolong 845, 710 two-platform platforms support dual-transmission solutions. The previous generation Qualcomm Xiaolong platform does not support dual-transmission solutions. This is very difficult for terminal manufacturers to accept.
However, it should be noted that the stability and maturity of Qualcomm's wireless headset solutions still have advantages. Currently, Sony and BOSS Bluetooth wireless headsets have adopted Qualcomm's solutions.
However, the micro-network reporter found that by visiting several wireless headset agents in Shenzhen, they are more willing to push Hengxuan's plans, and they are more optimistic about Hengxuan's development prospects in the field of wireless headsets. Then this home-grown IC design was established in 2015. The company - Heng Xuan technology in the field of wireless headset which is worthy of favor?
Heng Xuan another way to push the BES2300
'From the beginning of 2015, Hengxuan Technology has now opened a third-generation wireless headset chip, with a fast response, continuous iteration, and clear goals.' Insiders revealed that Hengxuan’s core team comes from domestic long-term mobile phone chips. Senior experts, who have a clear understanding of product understanding and industry chain, have advantages in product and program support.
Then, under the containment of the apple-on-ear solution, after Qualcomm built a dual-pass solution, based on the principle of not infringing both patents, how would Hengxin Technology's wireless headset chip solution find another way?
Gao Hao stated that Hengxuan Technology adopts magnetic field sensing technology for the bottleneck of interference and signal transmission loss in the process of headband transmission in the Bluetooth 2.4 GHz band. Magnetic field sensing will not be interfered by these problems and completely circumventing Apple and other patents. , The overall performance is greatly improved, it can be said that this is a physical solution to the physical problem. At present, Heng Xuan science and technology around the innovative application of magnetic field induction technology, has registered its own patent.
In fact, through magnetic induction technology, NXP earliest made hearing aid products in the medical field, but NXP is a discrete chip, the bandwidth is very low, and it is prolonged, which is not suitable for audio applications. Hengxuan Technology integrates single-chip SoC through innovation. Consumption, area, performance and other issues can be solved.
At the recent Bluetooth Asia Conference, Hengxuan Technology officially released this one SoC, namely Hengxuan BES2300. The chip supports Bluetooth 5.0, which can increase the lifetime of real wireless Bluetooth headsets by several times, and the signal to noise ratio can be achieved. 120dB. At the same time, based on the application of magnetic induction technology, the main and sub-headphones of the BES2300 scheme pass through the LBRT low-frequency transponder signal and connect the main and sub-headphones at the frequency band of 10-15MHz.
Hengxuan, Apple, Qualcomm Comparison of Three Wireless Headset Solutions
This is more stable than the traditional wireless headset solution in which the 2.4GHz band is used to connect the main and sub-headphones. At the same time, it significantly reduces the signal interference of the 2.4GHz band to the Bluetooth headset and enhances the penetrating power. Since the BES2300 solution uses electromagnetic induction technology, it needs to be attached to the inner shell. The magnetic induction coil adds new materials, but based on LBRT low-frequency applications, the use of common low-frequency antennas can complete the LBRT low-frequency forwarding needs, and the cost of material procurement is also significantly reduced.
Gao Hao stated that we have a very close communication with the upstream, and the views of the industry chain are basically the same. We believe that the experience and cost are still the biggest bottleneck at this stage. The source of these two aspects is also to solve this problem by the cost of chips, and Heng Xuan is This advantage is obvious.
It is worth emphasizing that, as a wireless headset with excellent experience and a variety of functions for smart audio access, there is still a gap. In the future, we need to increase R&D at the levels of power consumption, space, and algorithms. After all, this set The interactive system is based on the size of the wireless headset. It is not a problem like the Tmall Elf to use a 4-core processor to solve these problems. It is difficult to achieve these applications when the wireless headset has only 40 mA of battery space.
Of course, as a wireless headset chip company, it should focus on the underlying foundation, how to ensure the correct wake-up of the voice, after the wake-up, how to eliminate unnecessary noise, and the ASR engine can get a correct signal for ear transmission and Intelligent voice interaction, truly reduce the number of smart speakers N times into the ear, so the future number of iterations of the wireless headset can only be Dacheng. (Proofreading / Fan Rong)
2. Huaxin Tong server chip listed at the end of the year;
Economic Daily News Reporter Wu Bingze reports: The first generation of server chips developed by Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. has recently appeared on the '2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo' and will be available before the end of this year.
Ouyang Wu, Chairman of Huaxintong Company, introduced that since the establishment of the company for two years, a complete technical team has been established. Through cooperation, the R&D team's capabilities have been tempered, and a competitive server chip has been developed. A generation of server chips will be available before the end of this year, and the development of second-generation server chips has also begun.
It is understood that Huaxintong will continue to work with industry partners to promote the construction of the server chip ecosystem and continue to strive to become a world-class semiconductor design company under the strategic direction of firm development of ARM server chip products.
3. Lexin has been cited by the Gartner IoT cool supplier list for three consecutive years;
In the past two decades, many changes have taken place and will continue to happen...
Mobile Internet access: Rich online content, convenient and timely communication tools enrich our fragmentation time. Watches 'online': From Wi-Fi, GPS to cellular data network support, to run outdoors can finally get rid of Mobile phones. Cars 'on the Internet': Although the era of unmanned driving has not yet arrived, it is not far away. Tables and chairs are also 'on the Internet': seemingly inanimate object, also silently recording and life-related data.
Gartner's 'Cool Vendors in IoT 'Thingification' (a cool provider of the Internet of Things) predicts that by 2026 there will be 30 billion 'things' wireless connections, and in 2018 this number is less than 7 billion. The most authoritative IT research and consulting firm, Gartner, will publish the 'Cool Vendor' list in various segments of the IT industry each May.
Cool Vendor Cool Vendor is a direction of Gartner’s research business. This research does not constitute an exhaustive list of suppliers in any technology field, but aims to highlight interesting, new and innovative suppliers, products and Services. 'Connectivity at Any Price Point, in Any Location' is the theme of this year's 'Cool Vendor' list. This year's selection focuses on bringing IoT intelligence to marginalization or low. Cost of materials.
For cool suppliers in the Internet of Things, Gartner's selection criteria and focus are not the same each year. For example, the theme of 2016 is ultra-low-cost Wi-Fi equipment that supports cloud services (Lexin was selected). How to quickly use existing resources to develop IoT prototypes and small projects (downstream companies in the Lexin ecological chain).
Since 2016, Lexin Espressif Systems has been selected as Gartner's cool supplier list and has been in the Gartner research report for three consecutive years.
Gartner's annual 'cool suppliers' list is dedicated to discovering emerging startups, and will not repeat the previous few years. However, we noticed that in 2016, four companies on the IoT cool supplier list were selected. Among them, only Lexin has been reported and cited by this list for three consecutive years.
In 2016, the reason why Lexin was selected on the Gartner list was:
Provides a complete Wi-Fi solution on a small piece of stamp-sized board (ESP8266), but costs less than $2. It brings a whole new low-cost IoT application to real life.
In 2017, Gartner commented on Lexin:
'The equipment based on the Lexin chip platform is now at the core of many low-cost Wi-Fi projects, including Zentri and pycom (which was listed on the Gartner Cool Cooler list in 2017), which has exceeded our expectations and it Obviously has become a mainstream supplier. '
In 2018, Gartner once again mentioned Lexin:
At present, many IoT platforms and service providers have made compatibility and recommendation for their Wi-Fi chips. Due to its unique cost structure and uncompromising quality, it has attracted IOT developers and become their first choice.
In more than 100 countries, through its easy-to-use tool chain, 'Lexin' can provide rapid prototypes and fast IoT connectivity for SMBs.
And introduced the latest flagship product ESP32 series:
LeXin integrated support for keyword recognition on its Wi-Fi chip, allowing developers to provide more diversified voice interaction capabilities for their IoT design, plus additional digital signal processor (DSP) chips to connect To voice service providers in the cloud, the company will support more advanced cloud-based voice assistance.
ESP32 is approved by many voice service providers, including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Baidu Duer and Alibaba. LeXin expects to double its shipments in 2018. Its ongoing commitment to cost and performance will make it A better partner and supplier.
Finally mentioned who should pay attention to Lexin: The person in charge of technical product management responsible for deploying wireless connectivity in the product should consider 'Lexin', which is less than $2 per module, although it is simple, but it can help connect many others' Lifeless devices are intelligent.
From the report, it is easy to see that in order to maintain competitiveness and attractiveness in the evolving IoT ecosystem, Lexin continues to develop new solutions. 'Low cost', 'High quality' and 'Continuous innovation' are fun Xin based on the excellent genes of the IoT market and quickly penetrated.
4. Purity 99.999999999%! Domestic electronic grade polysilicon no longer depends on imports;
The electronic grade polysilicon with a purity requirement of 99.999999999% was finally produced in volume. The reporter learned from Jiangsu Xinhua Semiconductor Material Technology Co., Ltd. on the 6th that a series of rigorous verification tests have been conducted. Recently, a group of ICs were exported to South Korea with high-purity silicon materials. To some domestic wafer processing plants in bulk supply. This marks China's semiconductor integrated circuit silicon material has reached the international first-class quality standards, but also for the first time China's polysilicon manufacturing companies to export high-purity silicon materials for integrated circuits to the international market.
The electronic grade polysilicon material is the key basic material of the integrated circuit. In the past, the polysilicon material for integrated circuits on the Chinese market basically relied on imports. The electronic grade polysilicon is the highest purity polysilicon material. Compared to the solar grade polysilicon 99.9999% purity, the electronic grade polysilicon The purity requirement is 99.999999999%. The total impurity content of 5000 tons of electronic grade polysilicon is equivalent to the weight of a 1 dollar coin.
In December 2015, Xinhua Semiconductor was jointly invested by the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund and GCL-Poly to build the first 5,000-ton semiconductor integrated circuit-dedicated electronic grade polysilicon production line in China. On November 8th last year, Xinhua Semiconductor, a subsidiary of GCL, became a Released electronic grade polysilicon products.
At present, the electronic-grade polysilicon has been verified by customers and formed large-scale sales, breaking the monopoly of foreign high-purity materials for a long time, and filling the industry's domestic technological gap. Xinhua Semiconductor's first production line has a production capacity of 5,000 tons and can guarantee domestic enterprises. Within 3 to 5 years, electronic grade polysilicon will not be out of stock. The product quality will meet the demand for 40-nm and below VLSI 12-inch single crystal manufacturing. At the same time, another 5,000-ton production line will be planned to better meet international and domestic requirements. Market. Technology Daily
5. Shennan Circuit and the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences collaborated on packaging substrate products;
On June 7, Shennan Circuit expressed on the interactive platform that the company has a cooperative relationship with the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly for packaging substrate products; Huawei is an important company customer, and the company mainly provides PCB products for the company. The company did not directly cooperate with Xiaomi.
6. Ganzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance established
On the morning of June 6, the inauguration and signing ceremony of the Quzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance was held in Handan. City leaders Zhang Xiang'an, Xu Jiwei, and Yao Zhi attended the inaugural meeting.
Zhang Xiangan, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, announced at the inaugural meeting that the Shengzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance was established. The Shengzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance is based on the principle of “equality, cooperation, and reciprocity”. It is a non-profit and open-ended organization that is engaged in the semiconductor industry. The cooperation organization. With semiconductor technology as the leading factor, build a comprehensive industrial service platform among enterprises, universities, research institutes and government agencies, which will help speed up the formation and construction of the semiconductor industry chain in our city and promote the industrialization of products.
When deputy secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor Xu Jiwei addressed the speech, he first represented the municipal party committee and the municipal government and expressed his warm congratulations on the establishment of the alliance. He extended a warm welcome to all entrepreneurs and guests, and briefly introduced the economic and social development of the city.
Xu Jiwei said that as a nationwide advanced city in scientific and technological advancement, a provincial smart home appliance base, and a semiconductor industry in Zhangzhou, there is a demand, a platform, an advantage, and a foundation. In technological innovation, the '1+4+19' technological innovation policy was established. The system provided academicians assistance, and the National “One Thousand Talents Program” expert recruited and cited three major actions. Last year, the number of new academician workstations ranked second in the province, and the number of high-tech enterprises and high-tech industries ranked third in the province. The number of high-level talent team certifications and invention patents all rank fourth in the province, and the total number of R&D platforms above the provincial level ranks fifth in the province. The city’s semiconductor industry holds a number of excellent companies such as Changjiang Electronics and Quanjiao’02 The special 'industrial park' is facing a historical opportunity of great development and rapid development. In the business environment, the city carried out the 'Four Delivery and One Service' double-thousand project centered on precision assistance and normalization, ranking the entire province in the 2017 annual assessment. 1. In the province, it took the lead in carrying out reforms such as 'multiple evidence integration', 'submitting conveniences,' 'one maximum run once,' and provided facilities for the enterprises to settle in.
Xu Jiwei expressed that he hopes that the Shengzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance will play an active role in utilizing the resources within the circle to introduce more semiconductor industrial chain projects and to build Ganzhou into a shiny new star in the economic circle of the semiconductor industry.
At the signing ceremony, Ganzhou Economic Development Zone signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Quzhou Semiconductor Industry Alliance and a number of enterprises. Investment cooperation agreement, investment intention agreement. Science and Technology Daily