The antenna, RF chip and baseband of 5g mobile phone need to be fully upgraded, and the RF chip directly affects the signal transmission and reception of the mobile phone. Without it, the mobile phone can't connect to the mobile network at all.
RF chip is the jewel in the crown of analog chip, and analog chip has always been the weakness of China.
Among the four rounds of sanctions imposed by the United States on Huawei, the first round was that the physical list chip was banned. Huawei had a spare tire plan, which led to miscalculation in the United States. However, ZTE gave up in the first wave of sanctions and paid a sky-high fine. Judging from this round of sanctions, Huawei basically can't buy American RF integrated chips. Fortunately, Huawei did not rely entirely on American manufacturers to stock up in advance, which avoided ZTE's experience. By purchasing discrete components assembled in Murata's RF front end in Japan, it started to build a spare tire for 5g mobile phones.
However, with the escalation of sanctions and technology bans, many American partners and allies responded. Not bad, and the spare tire supply chain is useless. As for TSMC, which prohibits Huawei's chip foundry, it worked overtime for Huawei's Kirin 9000 before September 15, 2020, but Huawei's RF chips were not invested as early as one or two years ago. In addition, in 18, people began to realize Huawei's persistent research and development. Supporting Huawei from top to bottom, Huawei's mobile phones are selling well, and the inventory of 5g RF chips is decreasing wildly. Yu Chengdong himself seems to have said that Huawei will release 4g mobile phones later.
Global competition of RF chips
From a global perspective, the global RF front-end chip market has long been dominated by leading foreign companies such as Murata (Japan), Skyworks, Broadcom, Qorvo and Qualcomm. According to the data of Yole Development, in 20 18 years, the top five RF device suppliers occupied 80% of the RF front-end market, including Murata (26%), Skyworks(2 1%), Broadcom (14%) and Qorvo (/kloc).
The leading international enterprises started early, have profound knowledge, have strong leadership in technology, patents, technology and so on, have a complete product line through a series of industrial integration, and have strong R&D strength in high-end products. On the other hand, most enterprises operate in IDM mode, which has the whole industrial chain capability of design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and has strong comprehensive strength. These companies are also suppliers of major mobile phone brands such as Huawei, Apple and Samsung. The 5g mobile phone needs to upgrade three major pieces.
Independent strength of RF chip: Zhuosheng breaks through two single points and takes the whole RF chain.
International RF chips have been monopolized by giants for a long time, and Xu of Zhuo Shengwei is wiser, choosing a road of dislocation competition and seeking the only vitality in the cracks of giants. In the early days of Zhuo Shengwei, Xu Han Zhi gave up things with high technical difficulty and turned to specialize in fields with low technical difficulty but high demand. Abandoning the crowded PA (Radio Frequency Amplifier) track in China, we chose LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) and switching track that others can't see but the demand is real, which won the development space for Zhuo Shengwei and mastered the unique technology. In the end, Zhuo Shengwei got: customers from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and OV.
Most of the company's income is in RF switches, accounting for more than 85%. In addition, 12% is in LNA. The final result of business strategy is its excellent profitability: return on net assets: 40%+ gross profit margin: 50%+ net interest rate: 30%+
However, RF switches only account for 7% of the market value of RF front-end and LNA only accounts for 2%. And the big head is above 50% on the filter screen. The remaining 30% of the big head is on the PA. The other 3% is in the antenna coordinator, where there is basically no room for the development of switching lna. It is the need of the company's growth and the safety of the national industrial chain to force other components. Recently, Zhuo Shengwei increased his capital by 3 billion yuan and built his own production line. Does it feel cheap? Analog chips are not very demanding on technology. Very metaphysical (disturbed by the environment, unlike digital ic, one is zero and the other is zero). Design and manufacturing need to be closely integrated. Without wafer mode, parts with less difficulty can be made. How can I communicate with the inside of the foundry, such as the filter? Recently, the news said that Huawei is engaged in 90nm recently, and it is estimated that it also wants to engage in analog chips. After all, Hisilicon has accumulated a lot in the RF field, and digital ic requires higher technology.