The IoT chip market is about to explode, and local manufacturers are facing new opportunities
Latest update time：2021-10-25 15:35
Reads：
At the end of 2011, smartphone shipments exceeded PC shipments for the first time, ushering in a glorious decade of rapid development of the mobile Internet
. A number of mobile Internet applications were successfully born and nurtured, creating a large number of companies with a market value of hundreds of billions.
In 2020, the number of global IoT connections exceeded the number of non-IoT connections for the first time, forming a "things surpass people" situation.
According to data released by IoT Analytics, it is expected that by 2025, the number of IoT connections will continue to grow exponentially to 30.9 billion, and the scale of the IoT is just around the corner.
Comparison and forecast of global IoT and non-IoT connections from 2010 to 2025
(in billions)
Source: IoT Analytics
The vigorous development of IoT technology applications has brought many business opportunities to wireless communication technology. More and more chip manufacturers have begun to prepare and accelerate the research and development of technologies such as Bluetooth/ZigBee/WiFi to gain a foothold in the IoT market. Among them, wireless communication is divided into short-distance and long-distance transmission, and local IoT is rapidly promoting the development of short-distance wireless communication methods. According to Ericsson's mobile market report, the number of global IoT terminals will increase to 22.3 billion in 2024, and short-distance wireless connection is the main connection form of the IoT. The number of connected devices will increase from 7.5 billion in 2018 to 17.8 billion in 2024, with a compound growth rate of 15%.
At the same time, with the release of 5G R16 and the upcoming 5G Redcap, as well as the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Construction of New Infrastructure for the Internet of Things (2021-2023)" recently issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other eight ministries and commissions, the development of the Internet of Things industry has been injected with a shot in the arm. The Internet of Things industry has undoubtedly entered the fast lane of development.
For manufacturers in the industry chain, how to efficiently seize the upcoming market opportunities has become the current focus.
Local chip companies compete with foreign giants
Based on the huge opportunities of the Internet of Things chip platform, especially the huge trend of intelligent upgrading in consumer electronics, smart home and other fields, Fengjia Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fengjia Microelectronics") has timely launched a series of wireless communication chip products to respond to current industry pain points and market demands.
On October 22, the "Fengjia Microelectronics 2021 Autumn Conference and Smart Home Forum" was officially held at Tailong Bank, Poly One56, Pudong New District, Shanghai. In order to strengthen the construction of financial technology, Tailong Bank, as a strategic partner in the financial field of Fengjia Microelectronics, helped the conference to be held smoothly.
This conference launched a number of products including PHY6226, PHY6227 and PHY6218. Zhang Gang, CTO of Fengjia Microelectronics, introduced and interpreted the new products on site: PHY6226/PHY6227 are world-class ultra-low power and high-performance ZigBee 3.0 system-level chips, equipped with 32-bit ARM®Cortex™-M0 processor and Ali Pingtouge Xuantie CK802 processor, designed for smart home and networking fields. Among them, PHY6227 has achieved mature Ali ecological access.
In terms of performance, Zhang Gang introduced: "Through full reuse of hardware modules, a multi-mode digital transceiver is realized at the lowest cost. The maximum transmission power of the transmitter reaches 10dBm; the receiving sensitivity at ZigBee 3.0 250Kbps rate is -103dBm; the power consumption of transceiver is 4.6/4mA (TX/RX) at 0dBm."
In addition, the chip also uses circuit technologies such as high-efficiency on-chip power management, low-power RF front-end, low-power clock generation architecture, and oscillator fast start-up technology to achieve the lowest peak, average and sleep power consumption, ensuring that it can continue to work for more than five years when powered by a conventional 200mAH button battery.
Fengjia Microelectronics has been working in the field of AIoT wireless networking communication protocol stack for many years and has profound and unique insights into the characteristics and performance requirements of Mesh networking. Whether it is a large-scale network or a small local area network, Fengjia Microelectronics' PHY6226/PHY6227 ZigBee chipset and protocol stack software can provide customers with excellent quality and performance experience, and has a wide range of applications in consumer electronics, smart homes, remote control devices, industrial control and other broad fields.
From a technical perspective, ZigBee's advantage is stable multi-point Mesh networking, but it lacks mobility, has a low communication rate, and cannot communicate directly with mobile terminals such as mobile phones and tablets. The high-speed OTA and high-speed network configuration functions provided by BLE can make up for these problems. If a chip that supports a single-chip multi-mode protocol stack can be provided, the effect of 1+1>2 can be achieved without adding additional costs.
The coexistence of multiple wireless protocols has always been a hot topic in the industry. It is understood that there are two modes of coexistence of Single Chip ZigBee + BLE: one is dual firmware, one firmware is BLE protocol stack, and the other firmware is ZigBee protocol stack. The bootloader is used to switch between different protocol firmware in different usage scenarios. This mode is relatively simple to implement, but the application real-time performance is poor and the application scenarios are limited; the other mode is dynamic switching, using the same firmware to implement BLE + ZigBee at the same time, and using the underlying scheduler to dynamically cut the time slot into BLE or ZigBee. This mode requires a relatively deep understanding of the underlying scheduling algorithm and rich practical experience. Based on its full-stack R&D strength, Fengjia Microelectronics has technical reserves and is capable of developing multi-mode protocol stacks.
On the other hand, Bluetooth is now ubiquitous in various industries where human intervention and device interaction are required. Among them, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is no longer just a wireless module used to interconnect with mobile phones, but has become more of a hardware bridge between devices, such as wearable devices, smart homes, shared bicycles, building control, etc. The Internet of Things combined with Bluetooth technology is unlocking more and more application scenarios.
Driven by the good growth of global wearable devices and IoT market segments, BLE applications have huge room for growth and are expected to reach US$6.5 billion in 2023. As an important market for low-power Bluetooth, China's domestic market space for Bluetooth chips has exceeded 10 billion, and is still growing with the expansion of application scenarios, but the vast majority of the market share is still occupied by foreign companies such as Nordic and Dialog. Domestic companies are urgently needed to develop high-end low-power Bluetooth industry to better meet the customization needs of domestic terminal application manufacturers.
At present, the domestic high-end BLE market is basically a blue ocean market. Only manufacturers that can develop BLE chips with extremely low power consumption and high connection stability and can effectively control costs have the opportunity to expand the market and occupy a place in the market. Therefore, high-end BLE manufacturers with strong technical R&D capabilities and capable of low-power design and performance design have gradually become the focus of attention.
Fengjia Microelectronics, which focuses on the low-power wireless communication chip market, has performed brilliantly here. With its strong R&D capabilities, Fengjia Microelectronics has the technological strength to compete with foreign giants. Its products have excellent performance, obvious cost advantages, and strong application developability. They have been widely used in various scenarios such as bracelets, ibeacon, electronic price tags, electric meters, smart homes, lighting, keyboards and mice, etc.
At this conference, Fengjia Microelectronics also released a multi-protocol system-level chip PHY6218 that supports BLE 5.2/ZigBee functions. It integrates a low-power, high-performance multi-mode RF transceiver, is equipped with a more powerful floating-point CPU, and supports high-definition display functions.
The performance is also excellent, with a maximum transmitter power of 10dBm; a receiving sensitivity of -97dBm at BLE 1Mbps, and a link RF budget of 107dBm@1Mbps; a receiving sensitivity of -100dBm at ZigBee 3.0 250Kbps; and a power consumption of 6.7/6.7mA (TX/RX) at 0dBm. It is reported that the three new products will be mass-produced and shipped as early as next month.
In addition, Fengjia Microelectronics' product series also includes PHY6252, PHY6250, PHY6222, PHY6220, PHY6212 and other IoT wireless communication chips and solutions. The rich product line can adapt to the diverse IoT scenario requirements.
Fengjia Microelectronics' rich product line
Regarding the future development of different technologies, Fengjia Microelectronics believes that multiple technologies such as WiFi, BLE Mesh and ZigBee will flourish. Just as cities need elevated roads and sidewalks, the integration of IoT devices will be an organic integration based on various practical needs. For chip manufacturers, while maintaining the technical depth in their advantageous fields, they should also sense the new opportunities brought by "diversified needs".
Fengjia Microelectronics "flexes its muscles"
In general, Fengjia Microelectronics' PHY62 series AIoT Bluetooth system-level chips have top RF performance and outstanding energy efficiency. As we all know, RF performance and RF power consumption are contradictory, and Fengjia Microelectronics has found a balance between the two based on its advanced RF transceiver architecture and years of R&D experience in the RF field.
It is understood that its receiver adopts an innovative coherent modulation method, which provides a demodulation gain of 3dBm while taking into account the power consumption level, and increases the communication distance and anti-interference ability several times. Combined with the excellent RF front end, Fengjia Microelectronics' BLE and ZigBee series products have achieved the industry's first-class receiving sensitivity. The BLE 1Mbps sensitivity reaches -99dBm, far exceeding the industry average of -93dBm. The peak power consumption of RF transmission and reception is <4.5mA, and the lowest sleep power consumption can be achieved <1uA, which is on the same level as many international manufacturers. These technical advantages make Fengjia Microelectronics' products highly competitive in the battery-powered IoT field.
Fengjia Microelectronics products excel in RF and energy efficiency
At the same time, Fengjia Microelectronics keeps pace with the evolution of the BLE+ZigBee protocol stack. In 2018, Fengjia Microelectronics obtained the first BLE 5.0 BQB certification in China, supporting 2Mbps and Long Range; at the end of 2018, it obtained the SIG-Mesh BQB certification; in early 2021, it obtained the BLE 5.2 BQB certification, supporting AoA/AoD, extended broadcast, extended scan, periodic broadcast, periodic scan and other new BLE protocol stack functions.
In July 2021, the high-performance ZigBee 3.0 protocol stack independently developed by Fengjia Microelectronics, PHYPLUS-zb-stack, appeared in the ZigBee compatible platform certification list, becoming the second company in mainland China to obtain the ZigBee compatible platform certification of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). This certification means that Fengjia Microelectronics' PHY62 series system-level chips have met the alliance's requirements in terms of technical indicators such as the combination of radio transceiver and network protocol stack software, and protocol underlying software, and can realize various functions based on the ZigBee 3.0 protocol. The ZigBee compatible platform certification issued by CSA is another milestone for the series in the field of AIoT.
ZigBee Compatible Platform Certification
It can be seen that Fengjia Microelectronics has the independent research and development capabilities of the BLE+ZigBee full stack, and has accumulated more than 10 years of experience in radio frequency, baseband algorithm, and communication protocol stack. It has been recognized by many major manufacturers in the industry and has in-depth cooperation with Xiaomi, Tuya, Alibaba Platform, etc., and can cooperate with customers to carry out customized demand development.
Proprietary intellectual property full-stack Bluetooth solution and multi-protocol stack support
Fengjia Microelectronics' technologies in radio frequency and low power consumption have been verified by the market. It is one of the few chip design companies in China that has independently developed protocol stacks, and its shipments are growing rapidly. Currently, Fengjia Microelectronics has achieved large-scale mass production of multiple IoT chips, and has shipped more than 100 million chips as of the third quarter of this year, with an annual compound growth rate of 300% in the past three years.
With many advantages and rare market opportunities, Fengjia Microelectronics will continue to be committed to the research and development of various flexible, secure, multi-functional, cost-effective low-power wireless communication chips and communication protocol stacks with independent intellectual property rights, providing AIoT with flexible, secure, multi-functional, cost-effective low-power wireless communication chips and solutions.
How to break brand barriers?
According to the Global IoT Market Report released by the GSMA think tank, by 2025, the global IoT market will reach $1.1 trillion, and the market prospects are huge. However, the reality is not as smooth as expected. Although the number of IoT connections has surpassed, the application development and various innovations based on the IoT have not yet reached a very rich level. The application development and innovation of the IoT itself need to match the digital transformation of various industries, so it is a slow-burning and gradual development process.
At the same time, with the rapid increase in the number of smart terminals and connections, problems such as ecological fragmentation and difficulty in standardization have become increasingly prominent, becoming a serious obstacle to the large-scale outbreak of the Internet of Things. Taking the smart home field as an example, the different protocols adopted by different manufacturers have led to a serious "island phenomenon" among smart home products. In many cases, consumers can only accept the fact that they are "enclosed" by the manufacturer's own ecosystem and only choose products and services from a single manufacturer and ecosystem.
Brand barriers between enterprises have greatly restricted the mature development of the complete ecosystem of the smart home industry. The transition from enterprise-level ecology to industrial-level ecology is imminent. In other words, the Internet of Things industry needs a "master key" that can integrate the underlying protocol and enterprise platform business, so as to open up a true era of the Internet of Everything for consumers.
In this regard, Fengjia Microelectronics believes that "Matter" may become a breakthrough and one of the main directions for future industry development. Matter is based on existing network technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Thread, and can use low-power Bluetooth to simplify the device debugging process. The initial version of the specification uniformly uses BLE as the pairing method.
It can be understood that Matter is the industry's commitment to creating a new smart home protocol based on an open source ecosystem, breaking the separation between platforms and differences in development paths. Based on the application layer protocol of the IPv6-bearing network, it creates a smart home protocol standard that can achieve intercommunication and interoperability between different protocols, and jointly work to solve the current fragmentation problem of communication standards in the smart home market and eliminate the huge troubles caused to end users.
Today, along with the release of the Matter protocol, the first batch of Matter certified product types and smart home brands are also planned. From the existing information, the first batch of Matter products include lamps and controllers, air conditioners and thermostats, door locks, security, curtains, gateways and other products, which are expected to be launched at the end of this year.
Based on CSA's vision, products with the Matter logo can achieve secure and reliable connections with more devices. Compared with previous smart home connection solutions, "wide compatibility" is the biggest and most useful technical feature of the Matter protocol. It truly seamlessly connects devices and brings the user experience of the Internet of Everything to a new level. The release of Matter has received strong support from member companies. It is expected that the Matter certification project will be launched in the first half of 2022, and then the first batch of IoT devices that meet the Matter standard will enter the consumer market.
In the future, consumers, businesses, and developers will gain more choices and compatibility with Matter. As long as devices follow the Matter protocol, they can communicate on different platforms; developers can reduce development workload, do not need to adapt to multiple platforms, and obtain open source reference implementations; the supply chain of enterprises can reduce the uncertainty of stocking for different platforms; for the market, Matter enhances connectivity and further promotes the growth of device categories.
From the formulation of IoT protocol standards to the final product launch, chip manufacturers at the upstream of the industry chain often play a key role. Fengjia Microelectronics also agrees that the Matter protocol can bring more opportunities. Yang Zhongqi, VP of Fengjia Microelectronics Software Department, also said that the coexistence of multiple protocols in smart homes will be the norm. The formulation of the Matter protocol will bring more opportunities for ZigBee 3.0 standard products. Fengjia Microelectronics has formulated a richer product roadmap plan for different technologies such as ZigBee, BLE, and Thread. At the same time, it will empower other technical products with the experience accumulated over the years in Bluetooth, such as ZigBee Direct, BLE Provisioning in Matter and other technologies that require the coexistence of multiple protocols, to create multi-mode AIoT chips to match market demand and help customers accelerate product launch.
In the future, as more and more companies support the Matter standard, cross-brand and cross-system interoperability of smart terminals may be just around the corner.
Final Thoughts
It can be seen that the transition of the IoT ecosystem from the enterprise level to the industrial level is an inevitable trend. Under the vision of realizing the intelligent interconnection of all things in the IoT, maintaining differentiated competition and targeting the supply side will meet the fragmented, differentiated and personalized needs of the IoT, becoming a new competitive trend of "harmony in difference" among enterprises, and promoting the acceleration of the development of the IoT industry and the digital transformation and upgrading of society.
At the same time, on the eve of the outbreak of the Internet of Things market, for chip suppliers, this new battle is about to enter a white-hot stage. It is not difficult to see that Fengjia Microelectronics is taking advantage of the situation to accelerate product upgrades and technology iterations, striving to be the first to achieve new breakthroughs under the new situation.
*Disclaimer: This article is originally written by the author. The content of the article is the author's personal opinion. Semiconductor Industry Observer reprints it only to convey a different point of view. It does not mean that Semiconductor Industry Observer agrees or supports this point of view. If you have any objections, please contact Semiconductor Industry Observer.
Today is the 2838th content shared by "Semiconductor Industry Observer" for you, welcome to follow.
Recommended Reading
★ Can TSMC save Japanese semiconductors?
Deloitte report: Asia-Pacific semiconductors take off
★ Analysis of MEMS global market structure and technology trends
Semiconductor Industry Observation
" The first vertical media in semiconductor industry "
Real-time professional original depth
Scan the QR code , reply to the keywords below, and read more
Wafers｜ICs｜Equipment ｜Automotive Chips｜Storage｜TSMC｜AI｜Packaging
Reply
Submit your article
and read "How to become a member of "Semiconductor Industry Observer""
Reply Search and you can easily find other articles that interest you!
Featured Posts
京公网安备 11010802033920号