On December 19, it was reported that the world's second largest RF MEMS (radio frequency MEMS) company announced that it would give two factories in China to the domestic foundry giant**, and the two factories are mainly engaged in the assembly and packaging and testing of RF MEMS chips and modules, see below for details.
The world's second largest RF MEMS company**Two Chinese factories, the price is unknown, and the domestic OEM giant takes over!
On December 18, local time in the United States (Beijing time on December 19, Qorvo (Weixun United Semiconductor), an American RF chip giant and the world's second largest RF MEMS company, disclosed on its official website that it has established a strategic partnership with Luxshare Precision and reached a definitive agreement to the latter's assembly and packaging and testing plants in Beijing and Dezhou, ShandongThe specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2024.
It is reported that the two assembly and test companies produce advanced integrated products for cellular communications. Upon completion of the transaction, Luxshare Precision will take over the operations and assets of the two factories, including property, plant and equipment, as well as existing employees, to achieve seamless continuity of operations. Qorvo will continue to retain its sales, engineering and customer support staff in China to continue to serve customers.
At the same time,Luxshare Precision will assemble and test the products for Qovro under a new long-term** agreement.
*: Qorvo official website.
Through that transaction,Luxshare Precision is expected to obtain the world's leading packaging and testing capabilities for RF chip products (power amplifiers, MEMS filters, etc.), and further strengthen its strategy to enter the semiconductor manufacturing industry chain.
Qorvo is the world's leading RF chip and MEMS IDM company, mainly providing power amplifiers, MEMS filters, switches and other RF chip products.
According to Yole's MEMS industry report, in terms of revenue,Qorvo is the world's fifth-largest MEMS company and the world's second-largest RF MEMS device vendor after Broadcom.
*：yole
Monopoly!In the era of 5G communication, the value of RF MEMS has soared, and Qorvo has set up a new division in the field of MEMS sensors
The communication module of the mobile phone terminal is mainly composed of antenna, RF front-end module, RF transceiver module, baseband signal processing, etc. The RF front-end is between the antenna and the RF transceiver module, which is an important part of mobile intelligent terminal products.
RF front-end devices mainly include filters, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), power amplifiers (PA), RF switches, RF antenna tuning switches, duplexers, etc.
RF front-end module structure (Founder).
In the era of 5G communication, the usage and value of filters in RF front-end modules have soared, mainly because with the gradual evolution of 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and even 6G in the future, more and more frequency bands and formats are needed, and the frequency bands are getting higher and higherAs a result, the requirements for filters are getting higher and higher, and the demand is increasing.
Among them, according to previous relevant information,The BAW filter manufactured by MEMS technology is the main bottleneck key node of 5G mobile phone communication in China。In addition to 5G communication, MEMS filters are also widely used in wireless communication such as WiFi.
Currently in the entire RF front-end module,The output value of filters accounts for more than 50%.。A 5G mobile phone generally needs 70+ filters, and the unit price is much more expensive than a 4G filter.
Changes in the demand for mobile phone filters (**Toubao Research Institute).
Currently globalThe main MEMS BAW filter manufacturers are Broadcom and Qorvo, which account for more than 80% of the market share.
According to Yole's MEMS industry report,The top five players in the global RF MEMS device market are Broadcom, Qorvo, Qualcomm, Taiyo Yuden, and Skyworks, with Qorvo accounting for about 29% of the market share.
Qorvo provides RF chips for well-known consumer electronics giants such as Apple Inc. and SamsungApple and Samsung are the company's firsts.
1. The second largest customer, according to the fiscal year 2023 report released in April, Apple accounted for 37% of the company's total revenue, and Samsung accounted for 12% of the total revenue.
In addition,Qorvo also provides RF chip products and solutions for many domestic consumer electronics companies such as Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Lenovo.
*：yole
In addition to the RF MEMS market,Qorvo is pursuing further developments in MEMS sensors.
According to the financial report, in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, Qorvo will change its organizational structure from two business groups (mobile products, infrastructure and defense products).Updated to three business groups (High Performance Analog ("HPA"), Connectivity & Sensors ("CSG"), and Advanced Cellular ("ACG")).
HPA provides RF solutions for automotive, defense, and aerospace;CSG provides connectivity and sensor solutions for MEMS BAW sensors, UWB, Zigbee, etcACG provides cellular RF solutions for smartphones, computers, and more.
April 2021,Qorvo starts with 1Acquired NextInput, a MEMS sensor solutions provider, for a total cash consideration of $73.3 billionto expand the company's MEMS-based offerings for mobile applications** and provide sensing solutions for other markets, which is one of the key components of its CSG business.
Founded in 2012, NextInput provides microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based sensing solutions for the consumer, automotive, IoT, robotics, medical, and industrial markets. NextInput MEMS force sensors and infrared (IR) presence sensors replace pushbutton and capacitive touch solutions with superior performance, creating new user interface possibilities.
RF MEMS will grow the fastest in the next 5 years!What is RF MEMS?
According to Yole's data, the communication field, dominated by RF MEMS devices, will be the fastest growing segment of the MEMS industry in the next five years (2022-2028), with an average annual compound growth rate of 28%.Emerging domestic RF MEMS companies are expected to break the monopoly and gain market share in this fast-growing market in the future.
*：yole
RF MEMS devicesIt is divided into MEMS filters, MEMS switches, MEMS resonators, etc.
Filters (SAW, BAW, FBAR, etc.) are responsible for filtering the RF signals of the receiving channel, outputting signals of specific frequencies in a variety of RF signals received, and filtering out signals of other frequencies. In the case of SAW surface waves, undesirable frequency signals are filtered out through two conversions of electromagnetic signals-acoustic waves-electromagnetic signals.
The following figure shows the microstructure and package form of various MEMS filters, so that you can intuitively understand the differences between various MEMS filters.
A radio frequency switch (switch) is not a simple switch, but a switcherIt is mainly used in RF equipment to switch and process signals in different directions (received or transmitted) and different frequencies to realize the multiplexing of channels.
There are many types of RF MEMS switches, and they can be actuated by different mechanisms. Due to their low power consumption and small size, electrostatic drives are commonly used in RF MEMS switch designs. MEMS switches can also be switched on or off using inertial force, electromagnetic force, electric heat, or piezoelectric force.
Figure belowIt is a "cantilever beam" RF MEMS switch。In this configuration, the fixed beam is suspended from the substrate, and when the beam is depressed, the electrodes on the beam touch the electrodes on the substrate, putting the switch in the "on" state and turning on the circuit.
The latest generation of RF MEMS switches are mostly capacitive devices。Capacitive switches operate using capacitive coupling, making them ideal for high-frequency RF applications.
During operation, the force is applied to the beam that hangs on the substrate like a bridge. When the beam is pulled down by this force, such as an electrostatic force, it comes into contact with the dielectric on the substrate, terminating the signal. The cross-section of a bridge capacitive switch is shown in Figure 3, where the capacitive RF MEMS switch model built with CoventorMP 3D is undeformed, as shown in Figure 4.
Oscillator Resonator, an oscillator is the process of converting direct current energy into alternating current energy, which is used to generate an AC signal of a certain frequency, which is an active device. The resonator is a circuit that resonates a signal of a certain frequency, which is mainly used to screen out a certain frequency, which is a passive device.
The figure below shows the comparison of MEMS resonators with traditional quartz crystal oscillators, which have higher stability, reliability, and smaller size.
Conclusion
The main applications of MEMS technology are divided into two parts: sensors and actuators, although sensor applications account for the majority of the MEMS industryHowever, with the explosion of demand for 5G and future high-speed communications, the actuator market represented by RF MEMS has broad prospects.
Qorvo, a leading RF MEMS company, has shrunk its assembly and assembly facilities in China, but it has a firm grasp of the manufacturing line of MEMS RF chips and has accelerated its development in the MEMS sensor space.
MEMS filters for 5G communication are a key bottleneck technology node in China, and we look forward to the future, with the rapid development of the 5G communication incremental marketEmerging domestic RF MEMS companies can break the monopoly and gain a certain market share.
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