Matters:

The company recently released a new product, ASN (Automotive Sensor Network), an automotive sensor network transceiver, which is used in smart cockpit audio systems to solve many challenges such as cable weight, cable cost, wiring problems, and reliability of multiple connections. It can realize advanced audio and acoustic applications in the automotive field, and can achieve functions such as echo cancellation and ANC active noise cancellation with microphones and amplifiers, which can reduce vehicle weight and increase battery life.

Guoxin Electronics Opinions: 1) ASN is a high-reliability long-range vehicle-mounted lossless audio bus chip. It is used in smart cockpit audio systems. It is currently in the mass production and release stage, and has passed client product verification. This product is jointly developed by the company and leading global car manufacturers. It not only strengthens the supply chain security in this field, but also enriches the company's digital-analog hybrid chip product line, improves the layout in the automotive audio product field, and is conducive to enhancing the company's overall competitiveness in the automotive field. 2) The company has an increasingly rich product line in the automotive field. It can provide 30+ vehicle specification product segments, 200+ vehicle specification product models, and has its own vehicle chip testing factory, which can provide comprehensive “one-stop” services in the automotive electronics field. The electrification and intelligence of automobiles has brought incremental demand for analog chips. The company's automotive chip product line is becoming more and more rich, maintaining a “superior to the market” rating.

Comments:

Release of a new product ASN, which has passed client product verification

According to the company announcement, the company recently released a new product ASN (Automotive Sensor Network) automotive sensor network transceiver. ASN is a high-reliability long-range automotive lossless audio bus chip. It is used in smart cockpit audio systems to solve many challenges such as cable weight, cable cost, wiring problems, and reliability of multiple connections with point-to-point analog connections. It can realize advanced audio and acoustic applications in the automotive field, including audio ECU, active noise cancellation, road noise reduction, audio zoning, emergency call eCall, etc., to achieve functions such as echo cancellation, ANC active noise cancellation with microphones and amplifiers; by using fewer cables to reduce system and cable costs, weight, complexity, etc. This in turn reduces the weight of the vehicle and increases the cruising range. At the same time, ASN is also suitable for conferencing and teaching systems, providing flexible and efficient audio solutions.

The company's current ASN vehicle chip is divided into two versions: TPDA1000Q and TPDA1001Q. Among them, the TPDA1000Q is a fully functional version, and the TPDA1001Q is specially designed for in-vehicle microphone modules, all of which have passed the AECQ100 certification. At present, the product has been verified by many OEMs and Tier 1, and will be available in batches starting December 2024.

This new product launch has enriched the company's digital-analog hybrid chip product line, improved the company's layout in the field of automotive audio products, enhanced the company's competitiveness in this field, and is conducive to domestic replacement of products in this field.

Advantage 1: Super cost-effective. By using low-cost, high-efficiency unshielded twisted-pair cables to achieve long-distance multi-channel audio, control signals, and power transmission, this solution greatly simplifies the layout and wiring, reduces the number of wiring harnesses, and thereby reduces costs.

Advantage 2: Cascaded daisy chain structure, long transmission distance. Up to one master node and 16 slave nodes are supported. The slave nodes do not require MCU configuration, and the network is initialized by the master control chip attached to the master node. The maximum transmission distance between the two nodes is 15 meters, and the total cascade transmission distance is 80 meters, which can meet the needs of various in-vehicle scenarios and small to medium scale conference system scenarios.

Advantage 3: Stronger bus power supply, more sensor cascades. The bus power supply capacity has been increased to 12V, which can support up to 12 levels of sensor cascading. In active noise cancellation ANC and road noise reduction RNC scenarios, microphone data and accelerometer data can be collected simultaneously using a series of ASN networks.

Advantage 4: Parallel node discovery, fast initialization. In the case of multiple slave nodes, the traditional serial discovery method causes each node to wait for processor scheduling when initializing, greatly extending the overall initialization time. The parallel discovery method of ASN, on the other hand, reduces the scheduling wait time to only once, greatly shortening the network initialization time in the multi-node scenario.

Advantage 5: Audio channel loopback and fault location capabilities, convenient for on-site debugging. Engineers can quickly check the status of the entire network by looping audio data back to designated nodes. At the same time, ASN not only has the ability to diagnose cable faults (such as open circuits and short circuits), but can also quickly and accurately locate open circuit fault points, with a positioning accuracy of 0.5 meters. This innovative feature makes troubleshooting more accurate and efficient.

Advantage 6: <50μs ultra-low latency and accurate phase accuracy. It is particularly suitable for algorithm applications that require demanding delay characteristics, such as active noise cancellation, road noise reduction, in-vehicle audio partitioning, and microphone array beamforming. In noisy environments, large microphone arrays require the ability to accurately locate and identify each sound source. ASN distributed sensors provide strong technical support for phase sensitive beamforming algorithms by achieving phase alignment of data collection at each node.

Advantage 7: Flexible application scenarios. Key applications for ASN include automotive cockpit vehicles and external amplifiers. ASN is used for active noise cancellation and road noise reduction in automobiles, in-vehicle audio zoning, and driving warning. At the same time, ASN is also suitable for conferencing and teaching systems, providing more flexible and efficient audio solutions.

The company has more than 200 automotive products, providing a comprehensive “one-stop” service for the automotive electronics field. In addition to the newly released ASN transceivers, the company can provide a wider portfolio of product solutions in the automotive application field, including six major automotive product categories, including linear products, converter products, interface products, power management products, drive products, and switch products to meet the diverse needs of the automotive industry for high-performance analog chips.

From high voltage systems to low voltage systems, in electronic control units including core components such as signal acquisition, drive, power supply and interface, the company provides comprehensive “one-stop” services for the automotive electronics field. In 2023, the company established an automotive-grade testing center in Suzhou, marking the deepening of the layout of the entire industry chain from design to testing. At present, the company has its own vehicle chip testing factory, 30+ vehicle product segments, and 200+ vehicle specification product models to provide flexible and comprehensive solutions for automobile manufacturers.

Furthermore, the global automotive industry has moved from the first half of electrification to the second half of intelligence. From in-vehicle infotainment systems to intelligent driving computing platforms, every subsystem requires various types of chips to perform functions. For example, improving battery life is inseparable from efficient power management products, such as DCDC and PMIC. These products can optimize energy distribution, improve battery efficiency, and extend the driving range of a single charge. Various radar and camera systems are increasingly in demand for signal chain products to accurately process signals from sensors and provide vehicles with real-time environmental sensing capabilities to support advanced driver assistance systems ADAS and autonomous driving functions. The company has used a variety of products in various subsystems of intelligent driving, including in-vehicle infotainment systems, intelligent driving computing platforms, T-boxes, millimeter-wave radars, etc.

The company provides customers with automotive application solutions

The company can provide customers with a variety of automotive application solutions, including T-Box, car entertainment systems, car charger OBC, traction motor drive systems, high and low voltage DC conversion systems, power battery management systems BMS, electric power steering systems EPS, car body area controllers, lidar, vehicle cameras, etc.

Investment advice: Automotive chip products continue to be abundant, maintaining the “superior to market” rating. Due to weak demand recovery and a relatively large share of R&D, we lowered the company's net profit to mother in 2024-2026 to 0.088/0.186/0.34 billion yuan (previous value was 0.107/0.215/0.385 billion yuan). The PE corresponding to the stock price on December 12, 2024 was 166/78/43x, respectively. The company continues to enrich its products and application fields, and automotive-grade products are progressing smoothly. At the same time, the acquisition was successfully completed and listed, maintaining the “superior to the market” rating.

Risk Alerts

Product development falls short of expectations, customer introduction falls short of expectations, demand falls short of expectations, and the risk of increased competition.