Apple's self-developed chip expanded its layout and moved the cheese of "old friends"

Recently, it was reported that Apple is setting up a new office in California, recruiting engineers with R&D experience in RF chips, RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit) and wireless SoC (System on Chip), and developing Apple brand wireless chips such as baseband, RF, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Apple's RF chips are currently provided by Broadcom, Skyworks, Qorvo and Qualcomm. Affected by this news, the share prices of Broadcom, Skyworks and Qualcomm all fell, with Broadcom falling by 3% and Skyworks falling by more than 8%. According to statistics, about one-fifth of Broadcom's sales come from Apple, and nearly 60% of Skyworks' revenue comes from Apple.

Apple's chip layout is expanding. Up to now, in addition to the processor chips represented by A series, the layout of Apple's self-developed chips has been extended to power management chips, screen driver chips, T series security chips, Bluetooth headset main chips, baseband chips, fingerprint identification chips, 3D somatosensory chips and so on.

"We can't stop Apple's independent research and development, but I think the first is not so fast, and the second will only affect the business involving Apple. Other non-Apple phones still have a market. " Lin said to.

Control supply chain

Although it is no secret to develop baseband, Apple's involvement in RF fields such as PA will directly touch the cheese of "old friends" such as Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom.

It is understood that the RF chip is used to send and receive radio signals between two devices, and it is the core module for wireless communication devices to send and receive signals. Whether it is a mobile phone terminal, a base station or even a Wi-Fi router, it is inseparable from the RF chip.

From the main components, RF chip includes RF transceiver, power amplifier (PA), low noise amplifier (LNA), filter, RF switch, antenna tuner and other devices. Except for the RF transceiver, other devices are close to the antenna, so they are also called RF front-end devices.

Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom, etc. They are all big names in the RF field. According to the data of Yole Development, a market research organization, Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom, Qualcomm and Murata occupied 80% of the market share of RF front-end in 20 18 years. According to Bloomberg data, Apple orders account for about 20% of Broadcom's sales, while Skyworks is more dependent on Apple, and nearly 60% of its revenue is contributed by Apple.

Zhang Guobin, CEO of Electronic Innovation Network, is not surprised that Apple will develop its own RF chip. "Apple's baseband is made by itself, so it is natural to do RF." He said that Skyworks, Qorvo and Broadcom are the first echelon RF chip manufacturers in the world. Although they have the best RF equipment in the world, for the sake of supply chain security, Apple finally started with RF chips. "Cook is a supply chain expert. This epidemic made him realize that the supply chain should be firmly controlled by Apple. "

At the same time, Zhang Guobin also pointed out that future products need miniaturization design, which requires higher integration. The RF chip independently developed by Apple can make the RF part smaller by using SIP technology. "Just like Apple's own baseband, there is no need to plug in Qualcomm's baseband, and the space saved can make the battery bigger and last longer." Zhang Guobin said.

Affect geometry?

On the road of self-developed wireless chips, both Huawei and Apple attacked baseband chips first, and then began to study RF chips, but Apple was still one step behind Huawei.

In 20 19, Apple bought Intel's smart phone modem (i.e. baseband chip) business at a cost of 10 billion dollars, and started the road of developing its own baseband chip. The latest news shows that Apple's self-developed baseband chip will be put into production in 2023, using TSMC's 4nm process technology.

Huawei, on the other hand, not only integrated Ba Long baseband chips into Kirin SoC, the flagship mobile phone of previous generations of 5G, but also applied HiSilicon's RF chips or devices developed by itself to Mate series and P series mobile phones. For example, Huawei Mate 30 uses Hisilicon RF chip, and Huawei P40 Pro uses Hisilicon Hi6D05 for RF power amplifier.

Huaxi Securities Research Report shows that even for Huawei, self-developed RF chips are mainly discrete devices and medium-integrated devices, while high-integrated devices are still dominated by overseas manufacturers. Why doesn't Huawei P50 Pro+ equipped with Kirin 9000 5G SoC support 5G? The reason is that the 5G RF antenna is stuck.

Wang Xiaolong, research director of semiconductor research institute Core Research, is not surprised that Apple wants to develop its own RF chip. "Apple wants to make more and more chips, just like Huawei's baseband has not been extended to RF and Bluetooth?"

However, Wang Xiaolong thinks that it is "a little early" for Apple to prepare chips such as RF and Bluetooth when the baseband is not mature. "It is necessary to do both baseband and RF. I don't think it is necessary to do Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in person in the short term, but it can still be done in the medium and long term. "

Wang Xiaolong also said, of course, Apple can be in no particular order, because there is more money. There will be fierce players under the reward, but it does not mean that Apple's self-developed RF chip will be smooth sailing.

Lin bluntly said: "RF devices are not as easy to make as digital chips. RF PA is an analog signal, which has little to do with the process of several nanometers. In addition, there are fewer engineers in RF PA. "

So, what does Apple's entry into the field of RF chips mean to old partners such as Broadcom, Skyworks and Qorvo? What impact will it bring to the industry?

Wang Xiaolong thinks that if Apple does all the work of the chip company, it will lose all its friends, and Broadcom can't help it. "There are many such things. If you have a business, you can do it. No business, forget it. "

Zhang Guobin said that the RF chip independently developed by Apple has little influence on the whole RF industry. "Because Apple's things are unique, it is impossible for any other company."

He further pointed out that for Broadcom, they still have to constantly improve their leading position in products. Only in this way can Apple continue to use their products. "Just like Imagination was dug by Apple for 25 experts, Imagination continued to develop its own GPU (graphics processor) and became the number one in the world. Didn't Apple go back and continue to authorize? "

In 20 17, Apple began to develop its own GPU, which caused the revenue of British graphics chip design company Imagination to drop sharply. Prior to this, Apple processors have been equipped with the GPU kernel of the former. However, Apple's road to GPU self-research is not smooth. In 2020, Apple had to choose to cooperate with Imagination again and reach a new license agreement.

Need more time

With the advent of the 5G era, the demand for front-end RF chips has greatly increased. Driven by the demand for 5G communication of mobile terminals and the increase in the value of stand-alone RF chips, the market scale of RF front-end chip industry continues to grow rapidly.

According to the forecast of Yole Development, the whole RF front-end market will grow from152 billion dollars in 20 19 years to 25.4 billion dollars in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 1 1%.

5G needs multiple frequency bands for backward compatibility, and the usage of various devices is increasing, so RF integration is the general trend. With the arrival of millimeter wave communication in the future, the technical threshold will be further improved.

In this regard, Qian Ceng, Chairman and General Manager of Beijing Anrui Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. pointed out that in the face of the future trend, the RF front-end needs to focus on solving two major challenges: one is the high demand for new materials, and the other is the high demand for packaging because of its high integration.

In addition to mobile terminal products such as mobile phones, Zhang Guobin believes that Apple is aiming at the field of wireless chips, including radio frequency and baseband, in order to pave the way for more product forms. "In the future, mobile phones will be replaced by glasses and TWS headsets (wireless Bluetooth headsets), so Apple must solve baseband and RF problems in order to achieve a miniaturized appearance." He said that if Apple wants to build a car, it should also chew this bone off.

According to some latest news from key supply chains, Apple is expected to release Apple Car in September 2022. The news also shows that dozens of Apple prototypes have been secretly tested on the road in California.

Zhang Guobin said that although the baseband chip independently developed by Apple will be put into production in 2023, the RF chip may need more time to test. Wang Xiaolong said that Apple's self-developed RF chips were not used in products until several years after the baseband matured.

Earlier, it was reported that Apple would follow the example of its A-series processors and M-series processors to find the mode of TSMC OEM, and hand over all its designed RF IC (microelectronic devices) to the foundry for production. Apple will directly bind the production capacity of the foundry and will no longer place orders through the chip design factory.

In this regard, Wang Xiaolong also believes that Apple will find a foundry to manufacture RF chips. "China Taiwan Province Province has the strongest stability." According to the report of China Merchants Bank Research Institute, Mao Wen, TownJazz, Sanan Optoelectronics, Hongedin dzeko, etc. in Taiwan Province Province, China. Is the leader in the field of RF front-end device OEM.