Lu Yuechuan of Zhilian An Technology: The growth of semiconductor SMEs is in line with the law of industry development

On January 16, the 2021 China Semiconductor Investment Alliance Annual Meeting and China IC Billboard Awards Ceremony were held in Beijing. Beijing Zhilian An Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Zhilian An Technology) won the 2021 China IC Billboard "Annual Most Potential Award".

Regarding the achievements made in recent years, Lu Yuechuan, founder and CEO of Zhilian An Technology, said in an exclusive interview with Jiwei.com that the company's achievements are inseparable from the help and support of thousands of customers and colleagues in the industry. As a chip company, Zhilian An is at the upstream of the industry. In the future, it will continue to design more high-performance and cost-effective chips to serve the industry, and also hopes that more and more people will begin to pay attention to and support the semiconductor industry.

In recent years, with the promotion and increasingly widespread application of 5G, many new possibilities have been brought to the IoT market. The positive outlook for growth in the IoT connection vertical market reflects the industry's strong demand for the new possibilities promised by 5G, as well as the reduced cost of cellular IoT modules and the wider availability of low-power LTE technologies such as NB-IoT and Cat M.

Founded in September 2013, Zhilian'an Technology is an integrated circuit design company specializing in the research and development of cellular communication chips. Its main products are 5G Internet of Things communication chips. In January 2021, the company launched the second-generation, the world's smallest NB-IoT chip MK8020, based on a 55nm low-power process. The QFN package is only 4.5x4.5mm, providing excellent chip performance with an extreme size. The chip supports 32K crystal-free design, high-speed LPUART, fast frequency scanning and other leading features, and has carried out in-depth differentiated design for multiple typical IoT scenarios. The company's core R&D team previously had more than 20 years of experience in communication chip design, and the cumulative number of chips sold in the past R&D chips has exceeded 100 million.

Wang Zhijun, vice president of Zhilian Security Technology, said in an interview with Jiwei.com that domestic substitution has been going on in the cellular IoT communication chip industry for more than ten years. In fact, the biggest competitor is no longer foreign manufacturers, but a group of domestic friendly companies with strong innovation capabilities. Zhilian Security can only continue to lead in this field with better product definition, better IC design level and more reliable technical support.

2020 is a critical year for the development of China's semiconductor industry. Whether it is due to the impact of the epidemic or the impact of Sino-US trade issues, it is a huge challenge for Zhilian An Technology.

Lu Yuechuan believes that the development of China's semiconductor industry is currently at a critical stage. Affected by factors such as Sino-US trade, China's semiconductor industry has been pushed to the forefront. During this period, although many small and medium-sized enterprises have a hard time surviving, there are still a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises with growth potential that are growing rapidly, which is in line with the development laws of the industry and the development trend of the national semiconductor industry. If the core technology of semiconductors is only in the hands of one or two giants, the entire industry will have a weak ability to resist suppression. Now there are thousands of potential enterprises growing together and sharing the responsibility, so that the industry can develop healthily and stably.

Wang Zhijun told Jiwei.com that during the most severe period of the epidemic in 2020, the company always insisted on technological innovation and overcame difficulties to develop the next generation of NB-IoT chips and CAT1 chips. With sales performance and product innovation, it won dual recognition from product and capital markets, and completed the company's A+ round of financing while the shipment volume exceeded one million.

Wang Zhijun said that in 2020, the number of domestic NB-IoT connections has exceeded 100 million, among which the gas meter and water meter fields have formed tens of millions of applications, and fire protection, electric vehicle anti-theft and other applications have also formed millions of shipments. The year-on-year growth in these key areas is more than 50%. Other new applications are also emerging, such as smart helmets, smart medical care, environmental testing, etc., which can also form large-scale shipments in 2021.

At present, the pressure of wafer foundry and packaging capacity shortage has been transmitted to the entire industry, and the design manufacturers under pressure at both ends have become a "sandwich". In this regard, Wang Zhijun said that Zhilian Technology not only has cellular communication chip business, but also has two other chip product lines. These product lines and NB and CAT1 choose the same wafer foundry and packaging foundry. Therefore, the wafer fab and packaging plant will give Zhilian an overall capacity allocation, which gives it a capacity advantage over competitor companies that only rely on NB and CAT1 chips.

Wang Zhijun introduced to Jiwei.com the product plans and new market strategies of Zhilian'an Technology in 2021: Zhilian'an Technology will exhibit the world's smallest NB-IoT chip MK8020 at the Shanghai Communications Exhibition in February 2021 and will launch customer samples of the company's first-generation CAT1 chip in the second quarter.

The 2021 Mobile World Congress-Shanghai MWC will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo from February 23 to 25, 2021. At that time, Zhilian An Technology will exhibit the world's smallest NB-IOT chip, booth number: N1B144.