Due to the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea, the Japanese government decided in early July to ban the export of three important semiconductor and Display Panel materials to South Korea, forcing South Korean companies to embark on a path of independence. LG has confirmed that its panel factory has completed the use of domestic hydrogen fluoride materials to replace Japanese imports, 100% of which are made in Korea.

High-purity Electronic-grade hydrogen fluoride is a type of fluorine fine chemical used in semiconductor manufacturing processes to remove unnecessary chemicals adhering to chemical vapor deposition furnaces after film deposition, plasma etching, photoresist patterning Subsequent processes such as etching grooves or holes are a very important raw material in semiconductor production, and Japanese companies have a major share in this field.

After Japan issued export restrictions, the export of hydrogen fluoride materials to South Korea dropped to 0 in August, but this move did not affect the chip and panel production of South Korean companies such as Samsung, SK Hynix and LG. They used 3-5 in stock. In the months of 2019, domestic substitution was actively carried out, among which hydrogen fluoride is a relatively easy field to achieve success.

Compared with semiconductor production, the high-purity hydrogen fluoride required for panel production is also easier to replace, so LG has taken the lead in making progress in this regard. In early September, it announced the use of hydrogen fluoride produced in Korea to replace materials imported from Japan, and the test results were very successful.

Previously, LG replaced mainly gaseous hydrogen fluoride, and now the more difficult domestic replacement of liquid hydrogen fluoride has also succeeded. On the 14th, LG’s LGD company said that the liquid hydrogen fluoride used in the panel production process has been fully replaced with Korean products in the near future. Then use imported products from Japanese companies.

Compared with LG, Samsung and SK Hynix are also actively carrying out the replacement of Japanese materials, but the main products of these two companies are semiconductor chips. The dependency is higher than LG, and it is not so easy to replace.

With the increasing pressure on environmental protection, hydrogen energy has high hopes as a clean, efficient and safe secondary energy. Especially in the past two years, both national and local governments have frequently mentioned “hydrogen energy” in relevant plans and policies, and car companies and related supply chain companies have also accelerated their investment in this area, and have achieved success in core technologies. must break through.

According to the “Technical Roadmap for Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles” released by my country in 2016, the scale of China’s fuel cell vehicles will reach 1 million by 2030. Judging from the current development status of the entire industry, it may not be difficult to achieve this goal, but it is not that simple. Especially in the process of commercialization, there are still many practical problems, such as transportation and storage safety, and supporting construction of hydrogen refueling stations. , vehicle ownership costs, etc.

The development of hydrogen fuel vehicles is gradually “fast lane”

With the increasing pressure of environmental protection and the intensification of market competition, in addition to electrification, more and more companies have begun to focus on hydrogen fuel vehicles.

Among them, Toyota, as an early entrant and strong promoter in the field of hydrogen fuel vehicles, has launched its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on the market for 5 years and has sold more than 10,000 vehicles worldwide. Recently, the company announced that it will build a future community powered by hydrogen fuel near Mount Fuji in Japan, called “Woven City”.

Like Toyota, Daimler began working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as early as the 1990s, with related products including Mercedes-Benz buses, Fuso trucks and the F-Cell SUV. However, the relevant person in charge of the company said that in the future, the focus will shift from passenger cars to heavy trucks and public transportation, and the production capacity of hydrogen fuel trucks will be increased in the second half of 2020.

In addition, Hyundai Motor has made rapid progress in hydrogen fuel vehicles in recent years, and presented it as the theme of major exhibitions. Data show that from January to October 2019, Hyundai sold a total of 3,207 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 576%. In addition, BMW, Renault and other international car companies are also increasing related processes.

In the Chinese market, governments at all levels in provinces, municipalities, and regions have successively issued long-term plans for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and major auto companies have also launched active deployments in hydrogen energy vehicles. It is understood that Great Wall Motors has developed all core technologies in terms of fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems and is ready to put them into production facilities. Geely also released the first hydrogen fuel cell bus F12 in May 2019. The vehicle adopts cutting-edge hydrogen fuel cell technology. Through actual operation tests, it can be fully filled with hydrogen to meet the operating needs of one day. With the efforts of many parties, new data from the China Automobile Association shows that in 2019, my country’s fuel cell vehicle production and sales completed 2,833 and 2,737 vehicles, an increase of 85.5% and 79.2% year-on-year, respectively.

Breakthrough: It’s time for technological breakthroughs

With the rapid development and advancement of domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, new breakthroughs have also been made in the research and development of related technologies.

It is understood that Yihuatong, which has been deeply involved in the field of hydrogen fuel cells for many years, released a new generation of hydrogen fuel cell engine YHTG60SS in early December last year. The power density of the new product exceeds 500W/kg, and it has achieved 100% localization of core components. It has laid a solid foundation for the further expansion of the follow-up market.

In addition, a key technology in hydrogen fuel cells, perfluorinated proton membrane, has also made a breakthrough with the efforts of Dongyue Group, not only achieving technical breakthroughs, but also passing various tests. It is understood that Dongyue Group is currently building a corresponding large-scale production line, and is expected to meet the demand for perfluorinated proton membranes for domestic fuel cell vehicles by 2025.

However, it cannot be avoided that despite major technological breakthroughs, there are still many limitations in the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To achieve the goal of over one million, there are still a series of challenges that need to be overcome.

Challenge: How to be more secure? How to be more economical?

As we all know, the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles involves not only a car, but a set of complete and mature system support. For each link in this system, there is no ready-made experience for the industry and related enterprises to learn from.

First of all, it is also crucial that security issues cannot be avoided. As a fuel with a high calorific value, if hydrogen cannot properly handle the energy contained in it, it is likely to cause irreversible accidents. Therefore, before discussing how to scale hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, we must first ensure the safety of hydrogen energy transportation and storage. There are currently four known hydrogen storage methods, namely, high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage, low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage, solid-state hydrogen storage and organic liquid hydrogen storage. The latter two methods have low hydrogen storage density and are prone to produce impurities and side reactions. , so the first two methods are mainly used at present.

Secondly, the supporting aspects of hydrogen refueling stations are also a major obstacle affecting the promotion of hydrogen energy vehicles. At present, limited by the construction cost of 10 million yuan per hydrogen refueling station, only 39 hydrogen refueling stations have been put into use nationwide in my country, and about 100 hydrogen refueling stations have not been put into use or are under construction, mainly for hydrogen Fuel cell energy supplement for large passenger cars. In California, one of the current main battlefields for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, at the end of 2018, there were already 40 hydrogen refueling stations in the region, more than 7,000 for California (data in August 2019). ) hydrogen fuel cell vehicle power supply. In contrast, China’s current hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is mainly concentrated in the fields of public transportation and commercial vehicles. If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be “savagely grown” like electric vehicles, how to reduce the cost of hydrogen refueling stations and build them on a large scale? and openness will become an important issue.

The third is the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At present, the main cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is concentrated in the fuel cell system, accounting for about 65% of the cost of the whole vehicle. It’s a big obstacle on the way to popularization.

Aside from the selling price, from the perspective of hydrogenation cost alone, calculated at 0.3 yuan/kWh, the current hydrogen refueling station takes into account equipment losses, and the comprehensive hydrogenation cost is about 30 yuan/kg , and if you choose the way of external hydrogen supply, the comprehensive hydrogenation cost is between 23.3 yuan/kg and 36.7 yuan/kg (depending on factors such as transportation distance, transportation method, etc.), although it has certain advantages compared to fuel vehicles, but Compared with pure electric vehicles, there is still a significant gap, which is one of the reasons why the planned hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will achieve one million ownership in 2035. Only when the cost of use is low enough, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will have certain competition. force.

Of course, the imagination space for hydrogen energy is far more than that. Store renewable energy in the form of hydrogen energy, further enrich the hydrogen energy industry chain, gradually reduce the proportion of fossil energy participation, and optimize the storage and transportation of hydrogen to separate hydrogen production from hydrogen refueling stations, thereby reducing the construction of hydrogen refueling stations. The cost and convenience of large-scale construction of hydrogen refueling stations is what our ideal carbon-free society looks like. As mentioned above, this is a whole new system. On the way to realize our vision, there are bound to be many difficulties, but Only by taking the first step can we meet the blue sky.

According to Digitimes, DRAMeXchange said that DRAM prices in 2020 will increase by about 5% in the first quarter of 2020.

The reason is that during 2019, many graphics card and GPU products have transitioned from the older GDDR5 to GDDR6, a trend that is sure to continue into 2020. AMD’s Navi-based graphics cards are already all GDDR6-based, and so are most of Nvidia’s Turing cards, with a few exceptions for entry-level and mid-level GPUs.

New consoles from Microsoft and Sony are also expected to have an impact on GDDR6 supply, as they are both expected to release later this year with the latest GPU memory and storage standard. Although they won’t be released in the first quarter, DRAM suppliers are expected to stock up on GDDR6 ICs when the new consoles start production.

Of course, it’s worth noting that this is the price of DRAM contracts between manufacturers, but they often do translate into more expensive consumer products. Having said that, graphics DRAM is only a fraction of the cost of their integrated products, so the impact of DRAM prices alone won’t have much of an impact on hardware prices – it’s also possible that when DRAM is produced as new consoles come out, other than DRAM The price of hardware will also rise.

With the lowest memory prices in current history, this news is not surprising.

Shanghai, China – November 18, 2021 – Lattice semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC), a leading provider of low-power programmable devices, today announced its latest roadmap for low-power, AI/ML solutions , these solutions can help network edge applications such as client computing devices extend battery life and bring innovative user experiences. Built with the award-winning collection of Lattice sensAITM solutions and running on Lattice Nexus® FPGAs, they help OEMs develop smart, real-time, low-power, hardware-accelerated AI-enabled devices that are field upgradeable , to support more AI algorithms in the future.

Client computing devices increasingly demand responsive and context-aware user experiences, high-quality video conferencing, and collaborative applications. The Lattice Nexus FPGA and sensAI solutions collection is an ideal platform for developing computer vision and sensor fusion applications that enhance user engagement and collaboration and protect user privacy. For example, the client device can analyze the image data captured by the camera to determine whether people behind you are too close to the user, and can also blur the screen to protect privacy when the user’s attention is shifted elsewhere, or dim the screen to prolong battery life.

“AI applications based on vision, sound and other sensors will revolutionize the client computing experience,” said Matt Dobrodziej, vice president of marketing and business development at Lattice. “Our sensAI supports a variety of network edge AI solutions that empower client devices with contextual awareness. , so they know when, where and how they are being used. Our Nexus FPGAs do this with industry-leading low power consumption.”

AI computing devices developed with sensAI and running on Lattice FPGAs have 28% longer battery life compared to devices that use CPUs to drive AI applications. sensAI also supports in-field software updates to keep AI algorithms evolving, and gives OEMs the flexibility to choose different sensor and SoC technologies to fit their devices.

Lattice is working with leading AI ecosystem partners to develop a roadmap for the development of the Lattice client computing AI experience.

“Our Glance by Mirametrix attention-sensing software captures the user’s face, eye and gaze movements to understand the user’s awareness and attention,” said Stephen Morganstein, vice president of Mirametrix. “This unique technology enables smart devices to provide a more natural and immersive user experiences and device interactions. Lattice’s collection of sensAI solutions and low-power FPGAs can help developers implement novel AI capabilities and improve device battery life.”

The latest version (v4.1) of the sensAI Solutions Collection is now available to support Lattice’s AI-based application roadmap with enhancements and new features including:

Client Computing AI Experience Reference Design

o User detection: Client devices are automatically powered on or off when a user approaches or leaves the device

o Attention Tracking: When the user’s attention is not on the screen, reduce the screen brightness of the device, save battery, and prolong the use time

o Face Framing: Enhances the video experience in video conferencing applications

o Bystander Detection: Detects potential peepers standing behind the device, blurring the screen for data privacy

More application support – The performance and accuracy improvements of sensAI version 4.1 help expand its target applications, including applications such as high-precision object detection and defect detection used in automated industrial systems. This collection of solutions features a new hardware platform, including an onboard image sensor, two I2S microphones, and expansion connectors for adding more sensors, enabling the development of voice and vision-based machine learning applications.

Easy-to-use tools – sensAI has also updated the neural network compiler to support Lattice sensAI Studio, a GUI-based tool with a library of AI models that can be configured and trained for various mainstream application scenarios. sensAI Studio now supports AutoML capabilities to create machine learning modules based on application and dataset goals. Some models based on Mobilenet’s machine learning inference training platform are optimized for the latest Nexus line of products, the Lattice CertusPro™-NX. sensAI is also compatible with other widely used machine learning platforms, including the latest versions of Caffe, Keras, TensorFlow, and TensorFlow Lite.

On March 12, according to the report of the Chinese legal person, the current demand for MLCC for automobiles accounts for about 20% of the overall MLCC.

Among them, in the power system of electric vehicles, the demand for MLCCs is more than 5 times that of general fuel vehicles, and the demand for MLCCs for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) has increased to about 2,000 to 2,400 pieces, plus the demand for infotainment systems. It is estimated that the demand for MLCC for each electric vehicle is more than 1.4 times higher than that of ordinary fuel vehicles.

Looking forward to the application trend of automotive capacitors, the legal person expects that film capacitors will gradually replace electrolytic capacitors in the field of electric vehicles. For example, Tesla’s Model 3 electric vehicles and China’s BYD new energy vehicles use film capacitors.

Global MLCC manufacturers include Japan’s Murata, South Korea’s SEMCO, Taiwan’s Yageo, Japan’s Taiyo Yuden, TDK, AVX, etc. Yageo has a market share of about 13% and is the third largest MLCC supplier in the world. It is expected that legal entities, including Japanese factories Murata and TDK, Korean factories SEMCO, Taiwanese factories Yageo and Huaxinke, are expected to benefit from the increasing trend of MLCCs for electric vehicles.

Yageo previously decided to spend NT$50 billion to acquire Kemet, an American businessman, to expand its MLCC layout in automotive applications. Engines, safety systems, etc. In addition, Yageo’s previous acquisitions of Junyao and US Price Electronics also expanded the layout of vehicles. The legal person pointed out that KEMET’s main customers in the automotive field include Bosch, Continental, TOYOTA, etc. Huaxinke’s production capacity of automotive resistor components is mainly in Malaysia.

MediaTek’s 5G processor this year has won orders from major manufacturers including Huami OV, and its performance has soared, thanks to the Dimensity series. In addition to the Dimensity 1000/800/700 series this year, there will soon be a new generation of high-end 5G Dimensity chips, using ARM G78 CPU and G77 GPU cores.

According to sources, MediaTek will soon launch a new MT689X processor, upgrade TSMC’s 6nm process, and the architecture is similar to Samsung’s Exynos 1080, which means that the CPU will be ARM’s Cortex-A78, GPU will be Mali-G77, but GPU How many cores are uncertain.

According to the information given, the AnTuTu running score of this processor is around 600,000, which means that it is similar to the Snapdragon 865 and lags behind the Kirin 9000 and Exynos 1080.

Of course, compared with the usual score of 500,000 points for the Dimensity 1000 processor, the performance of this new 6nm processor has improved a lot, but it has not reached the level of the next generation, so it is not the Dimensity 2000, it may be named the Dimensity 1500 series .