Based on the variable frequency control system, Silan Microelectronics has made domestic air conditioner manufacturers no longer suffer from "chip pain"

As China's comprehensive national strength and economic status continue to improve, more and more Chinese companies are beginning to emerge on the world stage. According to official data in 2018, the market share of Chinese companies currently ranks first in the world in 10 categories, including mobile communication infrastructure (base stations) and household air conditioners.

What is particularly noteworthy is that all domestic companies engaged in the three major white goods industries of air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines are on the list. Among them, China's Haier Group ranks first in the world in washing machines and refrigerators, while Gree Electric ranks first in the world in air conditioners with a market share of 20.6%, followed by Midea and Haier.

Despite such impressive achievements, the shortage of core components of domestically produced chips is still an issue that we cannot avoid. As a leading company in the air-conditioning industry, Ms. Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, even made a bold statement that she would succeed in chip research even if she had to invest 50 billion yuan, which shows the seriousness of the chip shortage.

After 6 years, from scratch

As we all know, variable frequency air conditioners are the most core technology products among air conditioners, and the main control MCU is the heart of variable frequency air conditioners. For many years, the market for this core chip and its supporting algorithm control software has been monopolized by Japanese, European and American manufacturers.

In order to break the foreign monopoly, local IDM company Silan Microelectronics has insisted on developing MCU products since its inception, from the earliest 4-bit machines to the current mainstream 32-bit electronic control products. Nearly 20 years of continuous investment has made Silan Microelectronics the infrared remote control chip supplier with the largest market share in the world.

As early as 2009, after HVIC, IGBT and other chips were in place, Silan Microelectronics began its journey to power modules. From 2011 to 2013, Silan Microelectronics undertook the National 02 Special Project of High-Speed, Low-Power, 600V and More Multi-Chip High-Voltage Modules, developed a variety of high-voltage power modules and a variety of HVIC, IGBT, and FRD products, and established corresponding laboratories, and trained a group of motor drive engineering and technical personnel; in 2013, Silan Microelectronics participated in the Electronic Information Industry Development Fund Project, and together with well-known domestic variable-frequency air conditioner manufacturers, developed domestic intelligent power modules for variable-frequency air conditioner drives.

On the basis of good cooperation, in November 2014, Silan Microelectronics signed a technical cooperation contract with air conditioner manufacturers, and the cooperation between the two parties entered the fast lane. In 2015, Silan Microelectronics completed the whole machine debugging of compressor drive and PFC core algorithm based on FPGA platform, and produced MPW chip. In 2017, the single resistor high-frequency PFC solution passed the certification. In the same year, the fully independent high-performance variable frequency control MCU-SC32F58128 chip was successfully mass-produced. So far, thousands of air conditioners have been mass-produced based on Silan Microelectronics' self-developed chips, algorithms and systems, with excellent performance and stable quality.

In terms of core technology of variable frequency air conditioners, Silan Microelectronics has achieved a process from scratch and has been recognized by many domestic brand manufacturers such as Hisense for its outstanding R&D results.

Silan Micro Air Conditioner Inverter Control System Solution Demonstration Board

Behind success, there are many thorns

Behind the success, Silan Microelectronics chose a difficult road full of thorns. Because the chip product market is a fully competitive global market, Silan Microelectronics is facing global established technology companies, and faces huge challenges in terms of technology accumulation, industry influence, production capacity and many other aspects.

Like many high-end technologies, the core frequency conversion algorithm and its implementation method of variable frequency air conditioners mainly originated from Japan, and its core technology has long been controlled by Japanese experts. Although my country is already the world's largest variable frequency air conditioner manufacturer, most manufacturers that truly master the core frequency conversion technology, except for Gree and Midea, still rely on Japanese technology.

How to transform from "Made in China" to "Created in China" is the primary issue that all major companies need to solve. Silan Microelectronics is also working hard to this end, with the goal of helping domestic air-conditioning manufacturers achieve breakthroughs in core technologies.

Industry insiders who have been engaged in MCU chip research and development for many years revealed to reporters that in addition to the difficulty of frequency conversion technology, chip implementation technology is also not easy, and the investment is also greater. Although the scale of MCU chips is not large, due to the particularity of the application field, there are very high requirements for product reliability and consistency. At the same time, there are various special design requirements for various special applications, such as: real-time control and protection requirements; requirements for analog modules such as high-precision ADC; chip reliability design for harsh environments; requirements for minimalist design of peripheral circuits; chip security design; chip low power design; other special peripheral designs, etc. These details require years of product design experience accumulation, not to mention the capital cost and time cost required for tape-out.

Silan Microelectronics once stated that in order to ensure that chip products can meet the final system product requirements, they are guided by system design and directly develop complete systems on their own FPGA verification platform to ensure that chip specifications are 100% in line with the final system solution requirements without blind spots.

It is understood that in terms of frequency conversion algorithms, Silan Micro has a strong postdoctoral team and the support of overseas R&D teams. However, it is still a newcomer in the field of air-conditioning applications, so Silan Micro will inevitably encounter many obstacles that its predecessors have overcome. In order to overcome these problems, the staff of Silan Micro's intelligent control processor product line team stayed in the laboratory day and night, in an experimental environment of -15℃ or 55℃, and after several years of sufficient polishing, they achieved the successful mass production of their products!

Obviously, Silan Microelectronics' electronic control MCU is ahead of its domestic counterparts and has gained a first-mover advantage in the air-conditioning main control system. This is not only the company's early layout of its long-term strategy, but also an excellent result of many years of technological accumulation.

Silan Microelectronics MCU products cover the application range

Leading the frequency conversion control industry forward

Looking back now, Silan Microelectronics, with its far-sighted vision, began to accumulate core algorithm technology and chip design technology for frequency conversion technology six years ago, and established core competitiveness with its spirit of perseverance and continuous investment.

As the core variable frequency control MCU chip for variable frequency air conditioners, Silan SC32F58128 is the first domestically produced MCU chip product to achieve mass production, and is at least 2-3 years ahead of other domestic competitors. Silan Micro chose the most difficult bone to chew, "variable frequency air conditioner variable frequency electric control system" as its goal, not only catching up with the gap between domestic and international competitors in one fell swoop, but also achieved many new research and development results in chip design and system design solutions, and applied for a number of invention patents.

Silan Micro Air Conditioner Inverter Electric Control System

"For example, we have designed the first single-core compilation and multi-core operation technology, which realizes multi-core functions without changing the user's development and compilation habits, and improves the overall chip performance by 70%. We have also independently designed a nanosecond-level hardware autonomous protection mechanism to maximize the resistance to downtime and device damage caused by grid stress. There are more than a dozen internationally leading chip and system innovation technologies like this, all of which are used in the 'inverter air conditioner inverter electric control system' we designed." The person in charge of Silan Micro's intelligent control processor product line introduced to reporters that only by grasping the relatively high-end inverter control system can Silan Micro achieve more fruitful results in the broader inverter control system product direction.

It is understood that Silan Microelectronics' electronic control MCU products have been widely used in many fields such as industrial inverters, industrial UPS, photovoltaic inverters, textile machinery servo products, various variable frequency fan applications and electric bicycles.

In six years, Silan Microelectronics has caught up with Japanese and American companies in air conditioning inverter technology. Only by continuously investing in core technology research and development and achieving breakthroughs in key areas can we have the opportunity to completely get rid of the pain of "chip shortage" and "supply interruption".