After the historic announcement of the commercial launch of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system earlier this month, recentlyRan Chengqi, Director of the Navigation System Management Office and spokesperson for the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, stated at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that the 28nm process chip of the BeiDou system has already been mass-produced, and the 22nm process chip is about to be mass-produced.A reporter from China Business News reported from a domestic Beidou navigation chip developerGuoke MicroMore specific information has been obtained. According to Yu Fangtao, Deputy General Manager of Guoke Micro Multimedia Business Group, the company's latest 22nm dual frequency dual-mode Beidou navigation positioning has completed the verification of various key performance and is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of next year. Meanwhile,Beidou Navigation Satellite SystemRecently, the world's first 22nm RF baseband integrated centimeter level positioning chip was showcased. Li Nan, Brand Director of Beidou Xingtong Strategic Development Center, stated that the chip is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of next year.Many favorable factors will undoubtedly directly promote the commercialization process of Beidou. As the core component of satellite navigation products and the source of the industry chain, the chip side plays an important role in the Beidou industry chain. In the downstream industry driven by chips, the Beidou application market also has enormous potential. 

    The latest "2020 White Paper on the Development of China's Satellite Navigation and Location Services Industry" released by the China Satellite Navigation and Positioning Association shows that the sales volume of domestically produced Beidou compatible chips and modules has exceeded 100 million pieces, and the total sales volume of domestic satellite navigation and positioning terminal products has exceeded 460 million units, of which the sales volume of smart phones with satellite navigation and positioning functions has reached 372 million units.With the mass production and popularization of Beidou 22nm chips, a "breakthrough" battle for domestic chips has begun.Why pursue the manufacturing process?The 22nm process means that the Beidou navigation chip is at least two generations ahead of the global average in terms of technology.The most crucial element in leading this "breakthrough" battle is undoubtedly the leading position of Beidou navigation chips in the manufacturing process.According to the reporter's understanding, compared to the current international average process of 40nm for navigation and positioning chips, the 22nm process means that the Beidou navigation chip is at least two generations ahead of the global average in terms of technology, and this gap will give Beidou an advantage in competition with other positioning systems, including GPS.Luo Guozhao, Director of the China Laboratory at CHIP Global Testing Center, told reporters that compared to GPS, the most important way for latecomer navigation platform products like Beidou to catch up is through commercialization. At present, GPS accounts for at least 80% of the global commercial market. Therefore, in order for Beidou to catch up, it must lower costs at the chip and patent licensing ends, 'giving' users more functions for free, in order to accelerate commercialization. In Luo Guozhao's view, process is a powerful tool to reduce chip side costs.According to Luo Guozhao, compared to GPS commercial chips that mainly use integrated methods, Beidou chips tend to rely more on a single SoC chip to achieve all functions. 

    For a single chip, the most effective way to reduce costs in the early stages of industrialization is to improve process accuracy. According to the reporter's understanding, taking the new 22nm chip of Beidou Navigation Satellite System as an example, its size is 1/4 of the previous generation high-precision chip, and its power consumption is 1/5 of the previous generation.According to the reporter's understanding, in principle, satellite navigation chips include RF chips and baseband chips. Relevant equipment can receive signals transmitted by navigation satellites through the Beidou chip, thereby completing the function of positioning and navigation. Among them, the RF part processes weak analog signals, and the baseband part digitally "reads" them. The current development trend of satellite navigation chips is to combine RF chips and baseband chips into one to reduce peripheral material costs, area, and user design difficulties.Yu Fangtao also told reporters that in the early days, most navigation chips were concentrated in cars and did not cover portable products, so 40nm can meet temporary needs. But currently, with many portable wearable devices integrating navigation functions, the demand for power consumption will become increasingly high, and the value of achieving 22nm scale mass production of Beidou chips is self-evident.Chips with 22nm technology will significantly reduce power consumption and area, making them suitable for portable and wearable devices that require high power consumption and volume, such as smart monitoring devices, smartwatches, and wristbands in the industry. This greatly extends standby time and improves user experience Yu Fangtao said. Meanwhile, Shenzhen HuadaBeidou TechnologyGe Chen, the general manager of the Beijing branch of the limited company, also believes that in order to better integrate with various industries, chips need to evolve in more advanced processes.Yu Fangtao believes that in the commercial market, wearable devices have more stringent requirements for chip area and power consumption. Wearable devices are sensitive to volume, so there will be a stronger demand for upgrading the latest 22nm chips, "Yu Fangtao pointed out.According to a research report by AVIC Securities, with the rapid growth of demand for satellite navigation products in the mass consumer market, the current development trend of satellite navigation chips is mainly towards miniaturization, low power consumption, and high integration. Therefore, the improvement of process technology will greatly enhance the commercial competitiveness of Beidou chips.Expected to be popularized within one yearThe shipment volume of BeiDou navigation chips previously launched by Guoke Microelectronics has now exceeded 10 million pieces.With the official commercialization of Beidou-3, Beidou will also usher in a period of rapid market growth, and the popularization of 22nm chips will be the beginning of this process.The 22nm dual frequency positioning chip has the conditions for market applicationCCID ConsultantYang Xueying from the Intelligent Equipment Industry Research Center recently stated that the 28nm process RF baseband integrated SoC chip supporting the new signal of Beidou-3 has been widely used in the fields of IoT and consumer electronics.According to a research report by AVIC Securities, the current satellite navigation market can be divided into special application market, industry application market, and mass application market. Among them, the mass application market covering wearable devices, indoor positioning, vehicle networking, and location-based services (LBS) products will become the main market for the new generation of Beidou navigation chips.According to data released by IDC, the global shipment of wearable devices reached 336.5 million units in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 89%. In 2019, the shipment volume of wearable devices in China reached 99.24 million units, a year-on-year increase of 37.1%. Due to the fact that smartwatches and smart bracelets can use Beidou chips and other positioning modules to help grasp the location information of people in need, positioning accuracy has become one of the concerns when purchasing smart wearable devices.According to the reporter's understanding, due to the increased positioning accuracy and timing accuracy requirements of Beidou-3 by 1 to 2 times, the mainstream 22nm chips have made significant improvements in positioning accuracy and timing accuracy. 

    Taking Guoke Micro Navigation Chip as an example, its positioning accuracy can be directly improved to sub meter level, and centimeter level can be achieved through RTK algorithm. The timing accuracy can reach 5ns, which can be used for 5G base station timing.According to the reporter's understanding, the shipment volume of the first generation Beidou navigation chip previously launched by Guoke Micro has been applied in multiple scenarios such as shared bicycles. In the future, more and more applications such as shared charging, shared electric vehicles, intelligent wearables, and mute system monitoring will integrate Beidou chips, and the Beidou navigation system will become the spatiotemporal benchmark for new infrastructure. Driven by this background, the popularization process of 22nm chips is expected to be completed within one year.

    Source: China Business News