5G communication brings the semiconductor industry back to a new starting point.

Reading 5G communication in big bits is a familiar and unfamiliar word for us ordinary people. It is the first object reported by major media, the key issue of Sino-US economic and trade friction, and the infrastructure in the process of global digitalization. In the process of building a 5G network, the communication industry will naturally use a large number of semiconductor materials and related devices.

5G communication is a familiar and unfamiliar word for us ordinary people. It is the first object reported by major media, the key issue of Sino-US economic and trade friction, and the infrastructure in the process of global digitalization. It seems that 5G is entering our life in a more violent way than any previous communication revolution.

Although the current operators have different understandings of the actual situation of 5G communication, the only certainty is that the performance of the network we use will be greatly improved and lead us into a world unimaginable in the past.

The East Wind of "New Infrastructure" Policy

New infrastructure construction, referred to as "new infrastructure" for short, refers to new infrastructure construction represented by 5G, artificial intelligence, data center, industrial Internet and Internet of Things, which is essentially digital infrastructure.

With the continuous improvement of domestic epidemic situation, the 5G industry at the forefront of new infrastructure is also injecting new vitality into China's economic development. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively released the 5G+ Industrial Internet 5 12 project and the Notice on Promoting the Accelerated Development of 5G. Relevant policies will condense the knowledge of digital transformation and accelerate the pace of integration and development of 5G with economic and social fields, especially industrial applications. The application ratio of smart medical care, news media, smart city, car networking and industrial Internet is close to 10%, which has become an emerging application field of 5G.

What is the status quo of 5G base stations?

China is currently the country with the largest scale of 5G commercial network in the world. Up to now, according to Wen Ku, director and spokesperson of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, more than 1.5 million new 5G base stations have been opened every week. By the end of June, these three companies had built and opened more than 400,000 5G base stations nationwide.

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In addition, the construction of 5G open small base stations can also meet the diversified needs of vertical industry applications, which has spawned a richer network construction model.

At present, 197 5G terminals have obtained network access licenses, and the shipment of 5G mobile phones reached 8623 this year. By the end of June, 66 million terminals had been connected to the network.

It should be noted here that because 5G has three typical application scenarios; Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Dalian Internet of Things (mMTC) and Low Delay and High Reliability Communication (uRLLC). For these three application scenarios, the construction of base stations needs to be carried out according to the actual situation, which is very different from the previous construction of 4G base stations.

It is precisely because of these three typical application scenarios that ultra-reliable low-latency communication has extraordinary significance for the development of 5G. Recently, the international standards organization 3GPP announced the official freezing of the R 16 standard, which means that 5G has laid the foundation for entering the stage of Internet of Everything. The biggest embodiment is that the communication industry is not allowed to interrupt or delay, whether it is industrial scenes or self-driving cars, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable.

5G sensor application scenario connection

In fact, we might as well imagine that when the machines in our lives have enough 5G application sensors, we can monitor them, and the electronic system of the machines can learn applications independently, telling us when we need to repair or replace components and operating systems. Take an airplane as an example. When the plane travels to a certain distance, the system will immediately show signs of wear and tear of the internal components of the plane. At the moment the plane landed, all the spare parts were ready, and someone would replace them accurately.

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In addition, in the field of industrial automation, it is necessary to monitor and maintain high-value equipment in real time, so a 5G application sensor that can quickly accept and process massive data is essential.

Recently, in the forum on new infrastructure and enterprise digitalization held by GSMA, Gan Bin, chief marketing officer of Huawei wireless network, put forward his own views on the connection of 5G application scenarios. Gan Bin said that, first of all, based on large bandwidth and low latency, the 5G network will upload massive data generated by tens of billions of terminals to the cloud in real time, provide unlimited computing data for cloud artificial intelligence operations, and perform real-time computing processing to shorten the training cycle. Secondly, the application of cloud computing capability to the terminal can reduce the requirements of the terminal for local computing capability, reduce the cost of the terminal, unlock the resource constraints of the terminal and improve the user experience.

The next growth trend of semiconductor industry

The construction of 5G communication network corresponds to the communication industry. In the process of building a 5G network, the communication industry will naturally use a large number of semiconductor materials and related devices. Even in the middle and late stage of future construction, many applications will be realized on the 5G network, including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, smart home, intelligent driving and so on. When these applications are connected to the 5G communication network, they need strong semiconductor chip support.

According to the forecast of Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, the global market size of 5G network equipment will be around 37.8 billion US dollars (about 264.725 billion yuan) this year, and because "5G will cover more than 40% of the global population by 2024", the above-mentioned 5G network investment figures will continue to grow.

In addition, SIA said in the annual survey of global chip industry released this week that the annual sales of the global semiconductor market is close to 500 billion US dollars. Despite the recent decline, communication and computing are driving the upward trend, and it is expected that emerging technologies such as 5G wireless and machine learning will reverse the current downward trend. Moreover, according to the forecast of World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), in 20021year, the global chip sales will increase at a healthy rate of 6.2% every year.

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It can be seen that with the full commercialization of 5G technology, the demand gap of smart chip manufacturing industries such as semiconductors will continue to expand, and these fields will provide new development directions and promote the iteration of technology upgrading.

For example, in smart home, when calculating the distance from home, the indoor temperature will be adjusted to a comfortable state, and the interactive interface of the living room will display time, weather, indoor equipment operation and so on. In this regard, Liu Yang, regional sales manager of South China of Jing Xun Software, said that 5G technology is a qualitative improvement for intelligent life, and the semiconductor chip equipment combined with non-inductive control can make users truly feel the charm of intelligent interaction.

In intelligent driving: 5G technology provides application direction for new development trends such as information interaction and automobile innovation, and the proportion of electronic components in the whole vehicle is gradually increasing. Technical iterative updating to reduce vehicle system loss and improve system efficiency. Because the 5G network makes the information interaction between the cloud system and the vehicle or vehicle condition more frequent, it provides a better vehicle driving experience by reducing human intervention and realizes the mechanism of immediate feedback, so there is a demand for communication technology and performance upgrade of semiconductor devices, and in the aspect of semiconductor power devices, the technical trend of reducing loss is the key.

In this regard, Wang Qiang, an application engineer of high-power market in PI area, believes that reducing system loss is a systematic project, including the loss of motor, electric drive and gearbox, among which the most important part is the electronic control part. At present, many manufacturers have begun to apply new technology devices, such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials, which can reduce the volume and improve the system efficiency to a certain extent.

In short, 5G communication technology makes us realize that in this era of Internet of Everything, technical challenges are often accompanied by diverse integration of different technologies, different materials and different function optimization. Innovating and creating high-value terminal application products is the main trend.

Domestic substitution in the first half of the year

It is worth mentioning that due to the Huawei incident, leading domestic manufacturers in many fields are accelerating the pace of domestic semiconductor investment, and domestic substitution will also become the main line of domestic semiconductor development in the next few years. In particular, 5G communication is regarded as a collection of the most advanced technologies, which makes the design of domestic chips more difficult and has more stringent requirements on chip flexibility, programmability and other functions.

Then how to do a good job in overall planning, determine the technical route, choose the basic platform, build the development environment, and decide the process of slides and so on. All these are issues worthy of consideration before domestic semiconductor enterprises take action. After all, the demand for communication base stations, sensors, chips, power equipment and other components was replaced by domestic products under the influence of 5G technology in the first half of the year. It's concentrated. According to the forecast of China ICT Institute, it is estimated that the accumulated investment in 5G network construction will reach 1.2 trillion yuan by 2025. In addition, the construction of the 5G network will also drive the application investment in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and various industries. It is estimated that by 2025, it will drive more than 3.5 trillion yuan of investment.

It should also be noted that the use of 5G network should be deeply integrated with big data, Internet of Things and cloud computing, so that 5G communication can really play a real role. According to the forecast of Global System for Mobile Communications, by 2025, 25 billion devices will be connected to the 5G network and interconnected in various fields.

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It can be seen that behind this huge market scale, the technical support of domestic semiconductor devices is urgently needed. Xu Hongyan, R&D director of Yiliangsheng Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. said that compared with foreign semiconductor device suppliers, the biggest characteristics of domestic manufacturers are good quality and low price, stable supply and thoughtful service. Through these years of technology accumulation and the maturity of domestic semiconductor technology, domestic substitute products are not only cheap, but also not inferior in quality. Even with the advantage of backwardness, domestic components have surpassed foreign brand products in some parameters.

Generally speaking, with the application of 5G communication technology, domestic substitution in various fields will gradually mature, which will continue to provide a dynamic foundation for China's economy and promote the continuous progress of domestic semiconductors in technology and application fields.