This article comes from: international e-business information

Since Huawei was added to the "blacklist" of export control by the US Department of Commerce on May 15, there has been a big shock in the global industrial chain. For American chip suppliers, it is necessary to readjust their performance expectations and look for new growth points; for Huawei, it is necessary to go through a severe challenge period of fully launching "spare tire" testing and running-in. In particular, the RF front-end analog chip is "the pearl in the crown". Failure to find a "spare tire" means a complete shutdown in production.

What is an RF front end?

Radio frequency front-end (RFFE), which is mobileCommunication systemIt consists of five parts: power amplifier (PA), Duplexer (Duplexer and Diplexer), radio frequency switch (Switch), filter (Filter) and low noise amplifier (LNA).

The main functions of the five devices are:

1. The power amplifier is used to amplify the radio frequency signal of the transmission channel.

2. Duplexer is used to isolate transmitted and received signals.

3. The radio frequency switch is used to realize the switching between receiving and transmitting of radio frequency signal and the switching between different frequency bands.

4. The filter is used to retain the signal in a specific frequency band and filter out the signal outside the specific frequency band.

5. The low noise amplifier is used to amplify the RF signal of the receiving channel.

In addition to the above five devices, there is actually a RF antenna: at the outermost end of the whole mobile communication system, it is the window for the mobile phone to communicate with the outside world, and its function is to receive or transmit electromagnetic waves.

The market prospect of RF front-end is considerable. According to Yole, the RF front-end market for mobile phones was $15 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $35.2 billion in 2023, more than double that in 2017.

Analysis of Global RF Front-end Competition pattern

From the revenue share of the five major devices, filters account for about 50% of RF device revenue, RF PA accounts for about 30%, RF switches and LNA account for about 10%, and others account for about 10%. It can be seen that filters and PA are the top priorities of RF devices. For communication equipment, without PA, signal coverage will be a problem, and the lack of filter means that the equipment loses its anti-jamming ability.

(1) filter-Duplexer

Filters include surface acoustic filter (SAW), bulk acoustic wave filter (BAW), MEMS filter and IPD, among which SAW and BAW are the most widely used filters.

The top five manufacturers in the global market share of SAW filters are Murata (47%), TDK (21%), Sun Induction (14%), Skyworks (9%) and Qorvo (4%), accounting for 95%.

Compared with SAW,BAW, which is more suitable for the high frequency band above 2GHz, 5G new frequency band includes Sub6G and millimeter wave and other ultra-high frequency band, BAW will become the mainstream of 5G filter application.

The global market share of BAW filter TOP3 is respectivelyBroadcom Ltd(87%), Qorvo (8%), solar induced electricity (3%), accounted for 98%. Among them, the Broadcom Ltd family alone accounts for 87%, and the situation of "oligarchy" is beginning to emerge.

In contrast, there is still a big gap in domestic filter design. Domestic filter manufacturers haveMcGill Technology、Sanhuan Group, CLP de Qinghua Ying,Credit and maintenance communication, Haoda Electronics, Tianjin North,Rich science and technology, Wuhan Fangu, Huayuan Micro Power, Ruihong Technology, etc., but no manufacturer has been able to mature commercial BAW filter products.

For domestic manufacturers, the filter is the bottleneck. At present, the domestic SAW filter which can be mass-produced can not be integrated because of its large size, so it can only be external to the chip. Domestic competitors will have a chance to surpass their competitors in SAW filters for GSM, 2G or 3G low-frequency communications, while 4G and 5G use BAW and FBAR filters. Tianjin North, McGill Technology and so on are beginning to break through.

In the contract manufacturing mode, the filter manufacturers that can produce goods at present are all IDM mode. In terms of manufacturing process, MEMS technology has a very high technical threshold, so it is difficult to achieve large-scale mass production under the condition of high consistency and high quality.

Duplexers are also often included in the ranks of filters, which are composed of two filters that can achieve two-way communication on one channel. Half-duplex is that both sides of the communication take turns to send and receive, and full-duplex is that both sides of the communication send and receive at the same time. Full duplex is achieved by frequency division duplex (FDD) or time division duplex (TDD).

(2) Power amplifier (PA)

Industry insiders point out that the average number of PA in 4G mobile phones is 5707, and that of 5G mobile phones is at least more than a dozen. With 2 billion communication terminals and a unit price of US $1 to 1.50, the market will be 100 billion yuan.

In the terminal market, the vast majority of global PA market share is occupied by Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom and Murata. Together, the four manufacturers account for 97%, of which the first three account for 92%.

It is worth noting that Qorvo, Skyworks and Broadcom have all completed the layout of the full product line of PA, Switch, Duplexer and Filter, and have dedicated manufacturing and packaging plants.

Judging from the financial report data of the three manufacturers, their gross profit margins in the mobile communication RF front-end market are all higher than 40%, up to 50%, and the net profit rate is about 30%. They have strong profitability.

In the base station market, NXP and Freescale had a total market share of 51.1% before the merger.

The main domestic PA design companies are Zhongke Han World, Weijie Chuangxin, Ziguang Zhanrui, Huizhiwei, Feifei Technology, Zhongpu Weiwei (Weir sharesHolding), etc.

In the RF PA OEM mode, Sky-works, Qorvo and Broadcom adopt IDM mode. At the same time, the wafer foundry mode is also on the rise, mainly in Taiwan, such as the stable Mao and so on. Domestic PA wafer foundry manufacturers are mainlySan'an optoelectronic、Haite is high-tech.. The PA closed test plant is mainly composed ofHuatian Science and Technology和Changdian science and technology。

In terms of manufacturing technology and materials, RF PA mainly uses GaAs, RF-SOI, CMOS and SiGe. Among them, the base station PA will use the GaN material with better high-frequency performance, and the terminal PA is expected to use the GaAs material with higher performance-to-price ratio.

At present, most of the domestic PA products stay in the middle and low-end applications, and there are few PA manufacturers who layout high-end applications. However, Huawei designed its own GaAsPA, which gave domestic PA manufacturers a shot in the arm. At the same time, the arrival of 5G will also bring more opportunities for domestic PA manufacturers to replace foreign products.

(3) Radio Frequency switch (Switch)

Under the requirements of 5G, the RF switch should not only meet the requirements of high power and high frequency, but also cooperate with the more complex RF signal path for structural improvement. In the selection of materials and processes, RF switches mostly use compound semiconductor technology such as GaN, GaAs process, or continue to use RF-SOI process.

According to QYR Electronic sResearch Center statistics, the global RF switch market has experienced sustained and rapid growth since 2010, reaching US $1.447 billion in 2017 and is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of 9.5% in 2020, with a market size of US $1.901 billion.

At present, the RF switch market is mainly occupied by Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom, NXP, Infineon, Murata and so on. These manufacturers continue to improve enterprise efficiency through production technology innovation.

Domestic RF switch company hasZhuo Shengwei, de Tsinghua Ying, Ziguang Zhanrui, Weijie Chuangxin, Weir shares, Cami Xinxin, Yichi, etc. Among them, Zhuo Sheng Micro is the largest switch supplier in China, which has entered the supply chain of Samsung and XIAOMI, with annual sales of about US $100 million; Zhan Rui is both a Samsung supplier, but its share is not as good as Zhuo Sheng Wei; only Jet Chuangxin and Deqing Huaying provide PA design, but also provide RF switch, antenna tuner product design.

More than 70% of the RF switches adopt RF-SOI process, and some use GaAs process. LTE LNA mainly adopts RF-SOI and CMOS process. Domestic RF switch closed test plants are mainly Jiasheng, Riyuexin andTonfu micro-electricity. At present, there are 20-30 domestic companies that do RF-SOI RF switches, and the price war has become white-hot. The high-frequency RF switch suitable for 5G is the direction that domestic manufacturers try their best to break.

(4) RF antenna

At present, smart phones mainly use LDS and FPC antennas. As 5G frequency moves to high frequency, LCP and MPI will become the mainstream with lower high frequency loss in the range of Sub 6G. Especially in the millimeter wave range, the size of the antenna shrinks sharply, and the antenna array module will be used. The excellent bending performance of LCP helps to make rational use of the narrow space inside the smartphone.

The upper and middle reaches of the LCP industrial chain are mainly controlled by foreign manufacturers.

In the countryShengyi technologyEnter the field of LCPFCCL, and the communication of credit and maintenance enter the field of LCP antenna.Lixun precisionFor LCP Antenna Module supplierJingxin Communication和Tongyu communicationMainly base station antenna suppliersShuo BadeAs a former leader of mobile phone antennas, products now cut into the fields of base stations, vehicles and V2X antennas.

Industry insiders said that because the 5G antenna design scheme will be changed from "single antenna" to "antenna array", the new magnetic material and LTCC integration technology will be the core technology of 5G antenna. LCP antenna performance is better than LDS, but the price is 20 times that of LDS. Domestic mobile phone manufacturer Huawei designs its own antenna, which may change the existing competition pattern of antenna factory.

Generally speaking, almost all the leading RF device suppliers adopt IDM mode, and owning their own wafer factories is the key to leading the market. Relatively speaking, most of the domestic manufacturers are mainly contract manufacturing mode, for example, the main manufacturers of GaAs process are Taiwan Wenmao, Taiwan Hongjie and Xiamen Sanan Integration, and the main manufacturers of RFSOI process are TowerJazz,Semiconductor Manufacturing International CorporationAnd Huahong Hongli, the main manufacturers of CMOS process areTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation andUnited Microelectronics CorpThe main manufacturers of SiGe process are Groupon and TowerJazz. A small number of domestic manufacturers are also trying the IDM model, but they will still rely on contract manufacturers in the short term.

Look to the future:

(1) the market prospect of RF front-end is considerable.

For each additional frequency band of the mobile phone, about 2 filters, 1 power amplifier and 1 antenna switch are needed. At present, smartphones support more than 30 frequency bands, and it is expected that more than 91 bands will be supported by the global 2G/3G/4G/5G network in the 5G era. With the popularity of 5G in commercial use, the demand for radio frequency front-end will increase abruptly.

(2) the general trend of module "integration"

In the RF front-end "module integration", the manufacturers with faster development are expected to become the market leader. There are two development directions of RF front-end integration: monolithic integration (on-chip SoC system) and hybrid integration (SiP packaging). At present, it is easier to achieve through the form of SiP, and it is also the focus of the major manufacturers.

(3) New opportunities for domestic RF chips

In 2017, the market share of domestic RF chips was only 2%. Some analysts pointed out that the front-end main market is temporarily occupied by overseas giants, but after the arrival of 5G, the millimeter wave band will bring breakthroughs to domestic manufacturers. Sanan Optoelectronics, a leading manufacturer of compound semiconductors, Xinwei Communications, a manufacturer of RF solutions, and Weir, a manufacturer of RF devices,Tiantong sharesDozens of enterprises, such as McGill Technology, will have a good opportunity.