For a long time since the Huawei incident, China's semiconductor industry has been very prosperous. On the one hand, it is due to policy support, and on the other hand, it is also the natural fermentation of supply and demand market demand, which has accelerated the proliferation of domestic semiconductors in various fields. Recently, Professor Wei Shaojun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University and vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, gave a speech at the Global CEO Double Summit on "The Right Path in the World Is Vicissitudes, About Strategic Determination under Great Changes." He pointed out that the current development of domestic semiconductors should return to product-centered thinking and re-examine the gaps in the five major sectors of the semiconductor industry: design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, assembly and materials. We must respect the laws of industrial development, balance resources, balanced development, and avoid aggressive development that is eager for quick success and instant benefits.

Looking at commonly used MCU microcontroller products, from mobile phone peripheral consumer products, small household appliances to industrial motor control, automotive electronics, wireless communications, the Internet of Things, and even artificial intelligence, there are a large number of development teams and supporting support systems in China. At the same time, China also has the most extensive consumer groups and application scenarios. Based on the above factors, the development advantages of microcontrollers in the country are more obvious, and many local microcontroller star companies have been created!

Although the Chinese market is constantly expanding, there is still a big gap between domestic MCUs in terms of product form, market share and technological advancement compared with overseas brands.

In 2020, the sales of domestic MCU manufacturers are expected to reach 14.8 billion yuan, accounting for 55% of the entire Chinese MCU market. At present, domestic MCU manufacturers mainly compete in mid-to-low-end application fields such as consumer electronics, smart cards, and water, electricity and gas meters. However, in areas with large market potential and relatively high profits, such as industrial control, automotive electronics, and the Internet of Things market, they are still monopolized by foreign MCU manufacturers!

Asia Pacific Y2019 microcontroller performance rankings are as follows:

Judging from the global MCU market share in 2020, 32-bit MCUs will account for 62%, 16-bits will account for 23%, and 4/8-bits will account for 15%. From the perspective of the domestic MCU application market, 8-bit MCUs were still dominated before. However, with the continuous upgrading of terminal products and the strong demand for computing power and low power consumption in the Internet of Things era, and the average selling price of the two is gradually narrowing the gap, 32-bit MCUs will definitely usher in explosive growth!

In addition, although the Huawei incident caused some negative impacts, it indirectly promoted the "domestic substitution" craze and created great business opportunities for domestic MCU manufacturers. It is expected that by 2023, the shipment volume of domestic MCU manufacturers will increase to 25.6 billion yuan, of which the share in the consumer electronics MCU market will reach 86%!

The following is the basic information and statistical distribution chart of 30 domestic MCU manufacturers compiled by Electronic Engineering in August 2020.

Listed companies: 12, including 2 listed on the New Third Board and 3 subsidiaries of listed companies

Headquarters: 10 in Shanghai, 7 in Shenzhen, 3 in Beijing, 3 in Zhuhai, 2 in Suzhou, 1 each in Qingdao, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Wuhu, Anhui

From the perspective of core architecture, Arm architecture is still the mainstream, accounting for more than 55%. However, with the deepening of policy support and market advancement, the proportion of RISC-V has also shown an upward trend.

We have collected and compiled a product comparison of some typical domestic MCU manufacturers. From this, we can also see the long-term layout of each manufacturer in different industries such as consumer electronics, Internet of Things, new infrastructure and automotive electronics based on their own technology and market advantages.

As early as April 2013, GigaDevice launched China’s first 32-bit MCU based on the Arm Cortex-M3 core. After more than seven years of continuous development, GigaDevice currently has 24 complete product lines of Arm core-based MCU products, with more than 300 optional models, featuring high performance, inter-series compatibility, industrial-grade reliability and ease of development. According to official data, as of May 2017, GigaDevice’s 32-bit MCU shipments have exceeded 100 million units, and as of June 2020, this number has exceeded 400 million units.

In August 2019, GigaDevice also launched the world's first general-purpose MCU based on RISC-V core: the GD32V series. The first batch of new products provides 14 models, including 4 packaging types, including QFN36, LQFP48, LQFP64 and LQFP100, and fully maintains compatibility with existing products in terms of software development and pin packaging. The operating performance of the GD32V series MCU can reach 153 DMIPS at the highest frequency, and the CoreMark test also achieved an excellent performance of 360 points. Compared with the GD32F103 with GD32 Cortex-M3 core, the performance is improved by 15%, while the dynamic power consumption is reduced by 50%, and the standby power consumption is reduced by 25%.

In the future, the subsequent market products of GD32 MCU will develop in three major areas: wireless connection, ultra-low power consumption and automotive-grade products.

Chipsea Technology's current products are mainly oriented to four fields: 1) health measurement and medical products; 2) human-computer interaction products; 3) electrical signal measurement and power management control products; 4) smart home sensor products. Chipsea Technology started out as an ADC and has been deeply involved in the ADC field for 17 years. It has also accumulated 12 years in the MCU field. Its future core innovation will still focus on the ADC+MCU dual platform to provide a variety of low-power, small size, high-precision and high-performance signal chain products for the Internet of Things!

Since its establishment in March 2011, Lingdong Microelectronics has successfully completed the design and promotion of hundreds of MCU products. Lingdong Microelectronics has currently supplied batches of ARM Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 based products. The core MCU products include: MM32F series for the general high-performance market, MM32L series for ultra-low power consumption and security applications, MM32W series with multiple wireless connection functions, MM32SPIN series dedicated to motor drive and control, and OTP-type MM32P series, etc., to meet the needs of customers and the market for rich application scenarios in multiple fields and levels.

In addition to focusing on the traditional consumer electronics market, Lingdong Microelectronics continues to increase investment in the motor control market. You can refer to what Lingdong Micromarketing Director: Mr. Huang Zhikai shared at the 15th Shenzhen Motor Technology Seminar in 2020: http://news.ifeng.com/c/7ysBnANAD39, which provides detailed answers to key issues such as mainstream motor control solutions and motor energy consumption.

Hangshun chip

Hangshun Chip was established in Shenzhen in 2014. Its software and hardware are fully compatible with imported MCUs. As one of its major advantages, Hangshun provides low-cost MCU products that can enter the market the fastest. The recently launched HK32F030M, a 32-bit MCU, actually has an end-user price of less than 1 yuan, finally achieving the most difficult breakthrough for 32-bit machines to replace mid-to-high-end 8-bit/16-bit MCUs! HK32F030M is not only low in price, but also has a 48M main frequency, 100,000 erasing and writing times, etc. It can be widely used in oximeter, motor, ceiling fan, air conditioning refrigerator controller and other products!

In the future, Hangshun Chip will not only develop its efforts in the field of general MCUs, but also focus on market hot spots such as the new national infrastructure and 5G big data for all things, and will successively launch new products in the high-end and dedicated SOC fields.

BYD Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was formerly known as Shenzhen BYD Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and was established in 2004. At present, BYD Semiconductor's main business covers the research and development, production and sales of power semiconductors, intelligent control ICs, intelligent sensors and optoelectronic semiconductors. It has an integrated industry chain including chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging testing and downstream applications. BYD Semiconductor believes that MCU chips, as the core of internal calculation and processing of automobile electronic systems, are the key to the in-depth development of automobiles from electrification to intelligence. With its accumulation in the automotive industry, BYD Semiconductor entered the MCU field in 2007. Starting from industrial-grade MCUs, it adheres to the dual route of performance and reliability, and now has a series of products such as industrial-grade general-purpose MCU chips, industrial-grade three-in-one MCU chips, automotive-grade 8-bit MCU chips, automotive-grade 32-bit MCU chips, and battery management MCU chips. Up to now, BYD Semiconductor has installed more than 5 million automotive-grade MCUs in vehicles, and its cumulative MCU shipments have exceeded 2 billion, achieving a major breakthrough for domestic MCUs in the market. 

China is the world's largest automobile producer and seller, and also has the world's largest automotive MCU market. At present, an average of about 100 MCUs are used in a car. Based on this estimate, the total automotive MCU market in my country is about 2 billion, and the market size is as high as tens of billions of yuan. The rise of the new four modernizations of automobiles (electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing) will further increase the demand for MCUs.

In addition to benchmarking price, product performance, technical services, logistics response and other comprehensive strengths with overseas brands, the editor believes that domestic semiconductors also need to continue to strengthen the construction of the ecosystem and improve content. Taking STM32 as an example, ST provides a complete ecosystem of hardware and software development tools for each series of products, and builds a seamless development process with a one-stop development platform from configuration, development, burning to tracking, as shown in the figure below.

At the same time, ST has also cultivated a large number of potential user groups through multi-level resource support such as China University Plan, official website/official WeChat and other online platforms, and online training.

In addition, ST also facilitates the creativity of partners through the partner program, making it easier for customers to access more development resources. Chuangxin Workshop is one of the ecological partners, providing everyone with firmware encryption and secure burning products and services. Third-party partners not only provide hardware resources such as hardware development boards, debuggers and burners, but also provide program firmware services (firmware encryption, firmware secure burning, firmware cloud burning, etc.), ultimately achieving a win-win situation for ST, partners and customers.

"The right path in the world is the vicissitudes of life" comes from "Seven Rules: The People's Liberation Army Occupies Nanjing" written by Mao Zedong in 1949. He was inspired to write this poem when he learned the good news of the People's Liberation Army's occupation of Nanjing on April 23 at Shuangqing Villa in Xiangshan, Peking.

The original text is as follows:

The wind and rain in Zhongshan turned yellow, and millions of troops crossed the river.

The tiger sits on the dragon's plate and the present is better than the past. The world is turned upside down and generous.

It is better to use your remaining courage to chase the poor bandits, not to use your reputation as an academic overlord.

If heaven has feelings, it will also grow old, and the right path in the world will undergo vicissitudes of life.

Things are constantly moving forward, updating and changing, this is an inevitable law! China has the largest consumer market in the world, has natural market application advantages, and has excellent industry practitioners. Based on this, the domestic MCU industry still needs a long way to go. We must not rush for success, and we must not blindly consider overtaking in corners and taking shortcuts. We must follow the "right path" to achieve the right results!

Let’s encourage you!

※Note 1: Reprinting is welcome, but the source must be indicated.

※Note 2: Some data come from "International Electronic Business Information" and "IC Sights" as well as official data released by MCU manufacturers. Thanks again!

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