With the continuous breakthroughs in key technologies such as deep learning, big data, and cloud computing, the era of artificial intelligence has arrived. At present, China’s artificial intelligence industry is in a stage of rapid development. According to the “Analysis Report on Artificial Intelligence Industry Market Prospects and Investment Strategic Planning” by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, the scale of China’s AI market exceeded 20 billion yuan in 2017, and is expected to exceed 70 billion yuan by 2020. It is estimated that by 2035, artificial intelligence has the potential to increase the annual growth rate of China’s economy by 1.6 percentage points.

In the field of security, it has its own advantages of massive data resources accumulated by hardware devices such as front-end monitoring, and also has industry application requirements for pre-prevention, in-process response, and post-event tracing. It is one of the most ideal industries for artificial intelligence. The relevant national development plan of the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” regards intelligent security as a key area, and clearly proposes to “actively explore cutting-edge basic technologies in the field of security and related integration” and actively promote multi-review, networking (review) alarm technology, rapid security inspection technology, use of Biometric identification technology in the fields of doors, boxes, entrance and exit control, as well as the development and application of behavioral intelligent identification technology. At the same time, the Ministry of Public Security has repeatedly emphasized that it requires the public security organs to “focus on the in-depth integration of the police mechanism and the application of science and technology, and use the application of modern science and technology as a major strategy and engine for the modernization of public security work.

With the support of national policies, artificial intelligence technology continues to develop rapidly, and the deep integration of AI and security application scenarios has brought more and richer new scenarios and new demands, pushing the market into the “era of new security and true intelligence” . Traditional security only uses cameras as a tool for capturing images. In actual combat scenarios, a lot of manpower and material resources are required to do manual video comparison and investigation. And “New Security” fully penetrates artificial intelligence technology into solving practical problems of public safety, and integrates data value into various industry scenarios such as safe cities and smart parks, so that security monitoring can be changed from “existence” to “use”, according to the video Intelligent static and dynamic comparison of graphic data provides multi-dimensional solutions, which greatly improves the efficiency of security work.

It can be said that the integration of AI technology will bring a subversive revolution to the security industry.

Face recognition is the killer of smart security

Among a series of artificial intelligence technologies, face recognition technology is currently the most widely used and most effective AI technology in the security field.

The human face is one of the three unique features of the human body with legal effect, and it plays a decisive role in identifying and locking the identity of the target object. Face recognition technology uses computer technology to automatically capture faces from videos, compares them with the target database in the background system and alarms in real time. In large-scale event security, it can actually achieve “who, where, and trajectory reproduction”. It can effectively solve the problem that the public video probe is difficult to find the target image, the trajectory is difficult to find, and the identity is difficult to distinguish.

In recent years, face recognition algorithms have continued to evolve, and each company can achieve an accuracy of more than 90% in the face recognition test. It seems that the accuracy has reached a very high level. A fraction of the difference is a world of difference in actual combat applications.

Take the FRVT (Face Recognition Vendor Test) algorithm competition organized by the US National Bureau of Standards and Technology as an example. This test is a global authoritative face recognition test. The test collection comes from the real business scenarios of the US Homeland Security Bureau, such as immigration and criminal investigation. At the same time, these test data are not public, which effectively avoids algorithm process fitting or even cheating. Many countries and regions in Europe, the Middle East, South America and other countries and regions in the world use the test results as the gold standard to make national government procurement tenders.

Yitu has won the FRVT championship for two consecutive years. According to the results released by the National Bureau of Standards and Technology of the United States this year, the accuracy rate of Yitu under the false alarm of one in ten million is close to 99%, which is currently the best face recognition technology in the world. Under the condition of one in a million false positives, the current best-level recognition accuracy rate reaches 99.3%, and Yitu is also the only contestant with a false negative rate of less than 1%.

In this test, the difference between the algorithm accuracy of the top two algorithms is only 0.006, which seems to be negligible, but in actual combat it is a world of difference between usable and unusable. Taking the 1:1 comparison in a 100 million-level portrait system as an example, the difference of 0.006 accuracy is the difference of 600,000 false comparisons, which will lead to a doubled drop in work efficiency in security combat scenarios.

Therefore, ensuring efficiency in large-scale security scenarios is a very big challenge. At this time, very high technical precision is required to avoid the generation of a lot of useless work. Yitu’s face recognition technology has gone through three stages of development in actual policing. The first is the 1.0 static recognition stage, that is, the static image recognition; the 2.0 is the dynamic portrait stage, that is, the recognition and comparison are performed from the dynamic video stream. Assuming that there are 5,000 dynamic portrait systems in a city, the calculation is based on 2,000 people passing by each time. It can control 10 million people in one day and 3 billion in a year. At this stage, the requirements for calculation accuracy are higher than that of static portrait recognition.

In the future, the “three-in-one” application based on face ID, identity ID and network virtual identity ID will be the development direction of public security big data in the new era, that is, the 3.0 portrait big data stage. At this stage, face recognition technology can describe the trajectory of human behavior. Taking a city of 600 million people as an example, the 5000-way dynamic portrait system can describe 200 trajectories per resident on average every day, and when these trajectories are turned into structured data through artificial intelligence algorithms, they can be compared with human and vehicle data, mobile phone data, Identity ID data and other structured data are correlated and collided, helping the big data application of security to reach a new height.

The deeper the technology, the more application scenarios that can be unlocked, and the greater the imagination it can bring. With the deepening and deepening of artificial intelligence research, the continuous deepening of algorithm performance is required at the technical level. The changes it brings to the security industry and the unlocking of application scenarios will occur in geometric progression. Yitu will continue to expand the new frontier of artificial intelligence, empower security with the latest artificial intelligence technology, and help create a more stable and orderly society.

Keyword ransomware vulnerability

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a vulnerability in ransomware that allows encrypted files to be recovered without paying a ransom to a cybercriminal gang, shattering expectations for a major ransomware attack to fetch millions of dollars.

Cybersecurity researchers at Emsisoft have detailed how they thwarted the BlackMatter ransomware, saving several victim companies ransom payments.

Previously, the researchers had kept a low profile to avoid detection by cybercriminals; now, they published an article revealing how they thwarted BlackMatter by providing victims with decryption keys.

BlackMatter has been attacking in its current form since July of this year, but in reality, the ransomware has been around long before that. Because information security analysts have reached a consensus: BlackMatter is a rebranded version of DarkSide ransomware, but old wine in a new bottle.

DarkSide gained notoriety earlier this year for being the culprit behind the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. The cybercriminal gang behind the incident, which led to shortages of natural gas and fuel along the northeastern coast of the United States, took Colonial’s multi-million-dollar ransom.

However, the attack left a lingering impact, and shortly after the White House vowed to crack down on those responsible, DarkSide lost control of some of its critical infrastructure and some of their bitcoin wallets were hacked. Copy lost. The gang appears to have disappeared since then.

However, DarkSide soon reappeared in the name of BlackMatter, and the cybercriminal gang behind it did not seem to have restrained because it was targeted by the US government. They have launched a series of ransomware attacks against businesses in North America.

On underground forums, BlackMatter posted posts offering to buy access to compromised networks in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, and claimed it would not attack hospitals or state institutions. But that wasn’t the case, and in addition to the critical infrastructure attacks at several agricultural companies, the gang also attacked blood testing facilities.

Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow told the media: “The gang claimed to not attack critical infrastructure and certain other sectors, but it was these organizations and institutions that they claimed they would not attack.”

“Then why did they say they wouldn’t attack these industries in the first place? Maybe they were trying to avoid the immediate attention of law enforcement in the aftermath of the Colonial Pipeline incident, or maybe they felt that as long as they didn’t look like the thugs who attacked the hospital, they would be victimized. Companies are more inclined to negotiate a ransom.”

In December, Emsisoft researchers noticed a bug made by DarkSide operators that allowed data encrypted by the Windows version of the ransomware to be decrypted without paying a ransom — though the bug was fixed in January .

However, it turns out that the ransomware gang made a similar mistake when it reemerged under a different name, and researchers discovered a flaw in the BlackMatter ransomware payload that allows victims to recover without paying the ransom document.

After discovering this second vulnerability, Emsisoft worked with others to try to provide BlackMatter victims with decryption keys before they paid the ransom. The move prevented cybercriminal gangs from pocketing millions of dollars.

But unfortunately, BlackMatter eventually found the problem and plugged the loophole.

“The gang behind BlackMatter may have suspected something was wrong when revenue started to drop, and over time, the situation would become more suspicious. Unfortunately, in this case, the cybercriminal gang will inevitably find themselves There is a problem. All we can do is move fast and quietly help as many victims as possible while the window of opportunity remains.”

“This work demonstrates the importance of public-private sector collaboration. By working together, we can significantly reduce the profitability of cybercrime, which is a key factor in tackling the ransomware problem.”

Ransomware remains a major information security problem, and the best way to avoid having to respond to an attack is to not be a victim in the first place. Network security policies such as applying security patches in a timely manner, ensuring multi-factor authentication is applied across the entire network, and giving users only the minimum access rights they need (such as not granting administrator privileges unless necessary) can all help prevent ransomware attacks.

As for BlackMatter, the gang of cybercriminals are likely to continue their mischief, but their missteps may have damaged their reputation in cybercrime circles.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they ditched the BlackMatter name and came back with another name. Their reputation would stink. Repeating the same mistakes cost downstream hackers money. Lots of money.”

Anyone who has been online in a moving vehicle knows how frustrating it can be to lose the signal in a pinch. Users need high-speed connections and bandwidth to be able to view and send messages, play music and video, or hold multi-party video conferences very smoothly, regardless of traffic mode.

Phasor is a developer of high-throughput, modular, digital phased array antennas and a market leader in mobile broadband, providing highly stable, reliable satellite connectivity in aerospace, marine, land mobile and defense applications. The company’s electronically steered antennas are based on the latest developments in dynamic beamforming technology and system architecture. Phasor’s broadband and satellite solutions for mobile applications allow high-speed two-way broadband Internet connections using electronically controlled phased array antennas.

Antenna Technology

The Phasor antenna consists of multiple small repeating modules mounted on two PCBs, the upper PCB being the patch antenna array on the front and the Phasor Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) on the back. The lower backplane provides power, control, and communications for the system.

The latest antenna technology developed by Phasor eliminates the need for satellite dishes, enabling the application of thin, flat, solid-state fixed antenna systems embedded on top of vehicles. The thin unit is less than 25mm thick and performs as well as a 2.4m or wider dish. The two main properties of this antenna are integrability and expandability: the integrability allows the antenna to fit into most vehicle form factors; the scalability of the entire modular architecture helps the antenna meet any future needs.

When Phasor wanted to develop a unique mobile communication system, it realized that its products needed to not only combine high power density with thin components, but also deliver extremely high currents at very low voltages.

The solution that meets all of these requirements is Vicor’s Factorized Power Architecture™ (FPA™), and the two companies have worked closely together for the past four years to ensure products are developed that meet Phasor’s system requirements and fully meet customer needs. Phasor found that Vicor FPA systems lead the market in size and density, as well as delivering modular and scalable high performance.

FPA Solutions

Today, as the load voltage of advanced processors drops below 1 volt, these processors require more current. Point-of-load density and low noise are increasingly important to processor performance. An ongoing challenge for system designers is how to accommodate lower voltages with faster transient response and higher power system efficiency in shrinking circuit boards.

A factorial power architecture solves these problems—it takes the regulation and conversion functions of a DC-DC converter and breaks it down into two components. This allows for full optimization of functions: a high-efficiency voltage regulator and a high-density current transmitter for a variety of low-voltage, high-current loads. The FPA consists of a Voltage Regulator Module (PRM™) and a Current Multiplier (VTM™). These two devices work together, each device can effectively play its special role, and finally complete the DC-DC conversion function.

The PRM can provide a regulated output voltage or “factored bus” from an unregulated input supply. This busbar supplies power to one or more VTMs and not only brings the factored busbar voltage to the level required by its load, but also provides isolation. Therefore, the PRM-VTM chipset provides full regulated isolated DC-DC converter functionality.

A factorial power supply means more space at the point of load, power consumption is halved, and voltage regulation can be located remotely.

The Components Behind Factorized Power Supplies: PRM and VTM

Both PRM and VTM are components that implement FPA. The PRM regulator uses a patented zero-voltage switching (ZVS) buck-boost regulator control architecture for efficient buck-boost regulation and soft-start. The highest efficiency is achieved when VIN = VOUT; the latest PRM achieves a peak efficiency of 99.3%.

The VTM current multiplier is a high-efficiency transformer module using a proprietary Zero Current Switching/Zero Voltage Switching (ZCS/ZVS) Sine Amplitude Converter (SAC™). Its operation is based on pure sinusoidal waveforms with high spectral purity and common-mode symmetry. These characteristics mean that not only does it not produce the harmonic content typical of PWM-type conversions, it also produces very low noise. The control architecture locks the operating frequency to the power stage resonant frequency and not only supports efficiencies up to 97%, but also minimizes output impedance by effectively eliminating reactive components. This extremely low inductive-free output impedance enables almost instantaneous response to step changes in load current.

The VTM can respond to load changes with an effective switching frequency of 3.5MHz, whether the amplitude is less than 1 microsecond. The high bandwidth of the VTM eliminates the need for large point-of-load capacitors. Even without any external output capacitors, the VTM’s output has very limited voltage perturbation in response to sudden power surges. Very few external bypass capacitors (in the form of low ESR/ESL ceramic capacitors) are sufficient to eliminate any transient voltage overshoot.

Transformer

An important factor in the successful operation of Phasor’s antennas is the Vicor system’s ability to convert 48V power to 1.5V (and even lower for newer antennas). The main challenge in the design of the Phasor ASIC power system is the need to achieve this transformation at 65A (or even 80A).

Phasor has considered other solutions, but there are several shortcomings. First, some alternatives do not address issues such as heat dissipation. With a height of 25mm, there is simply no room for a cooling fan, so Phasor needed a solution that not only conducts heat dissipation, but also generates (and wastes) as little heat as possible. Second, traditional transformation methods may involve multiple hard-switching converters with multiple different phases to achieve 65A current, which may generate a large amount of electromagnetic interference. The VTM is a resonant converter and therefore has extremely low noise compared to hard-switched converters. At the same time, Vicor solutions outperform traditional DC/DC converters in terms of power supply and efficiency.

In addition, the FPA solutions provided by Vicor have been well-proven by several large processor companies over the past 10 years.

future

The work done by Vicor and Phasor is a major breakthrough that promises to be a multi-million dollar market. The development of this market will have two important elements: the transition from existing geostationary satellite networks to other forms of broadband; and the release of thousands of low-Earth orbit satellite systems that will provide long-range connectivity at broadband speeds.

For both companies, the next challenge is to develop technologies that deliver higher currents at lower voltages (1V).

With Vicor and Phasor’s long-term symbiotic strategic relationship, not only will the antenna specialists keep the modular power specialists up to date on the power requirements of the latest ASICs, but Vicor will also keep Phasor up to date with factored power supplies. The growing collaboration between the two companies continues.

[Introduction]Even switching power supplies with a fixed switching frequency do not always show continuous pulses. In some cases, pulses are ignored for various reasons. This is important when considering output ripple voltage and EMI effects.

Switching regulators used for voltage conversion typically use an adjustable or fixed switching frequency, which is usually listed on the first page of the switching regulator IC data sheet. For power circuits, the choice of switching frequency is important because it affects the size and cost of external passive components. In addition, the switching frequency also affects the achievable conversion efficiency. The choice of switching frequency is also very important for the entire circuit (not only the power converter, but also other circuit parts in the system). We usually choose the switching frequency within the frequency range where the entire system is least disturbed. Due to the parasitics of the printed circuit board, the switching frequency of the power supply is often coupled to many parts of the circuit through capacitive and inductive coupling.

After choosing the correct switching frequency, circuit designers often get surprising results when evaluating actual circuits. At the selected switching frequency, the designed circuit often does not switch as expected. There are usually two reasons for this.

burst mode

Many applications require very high conversion efficiencies, even at low output loads. If the required output power is only a few mW, the supply current of the switching regulator itself is seriously disproportionate. This is especially true if efficiency is expressed as a percentage. To improve efficiency in these situations, switching regulator ICs are often configured with a special burst mode. Figure 1 shows the voltage versus time of a switching regulator in Burst Mode®. The switch node switches once before switching to a longer pause phase. During this suspend phase, many functions of the switching regulator IC go into sleep mode, consuming a very small amount of power. Figure 1 shows the switch node voltage, Inductor current, and output voltage.

Figure 1. Burst-mode concept in switch-mode power supplies.

When operating in burst mode, the output voltage ripple is larger. The frequency is much lower than the voltage ripple set by the switching frequency under normal operating conditions. Depending on the voltage converter IC and circuit conditions, there is usually a very small number of pulses, eg, one pulse or a large number of pulses, when operating in the burst phase. Typically, as many pulses as possible are generated before the output voltage reaches the set upper threshold. It then pauses for a period of time until the output voltage falls below the lower threshold. In this case, during the pulse, the selected switching frequency is still switched, but the lower frequencies defined by the burst phase and the pause phase also appear in the spectrum.

Figure 2. Simulation of the LT8620 step-down switching regulator in burst mode using LTspice®.

Pulse skipping mode

Another mode is the pulse skip mode. Many types of power converters offer this mode. In many topologies, each time a pulse occurs at the switching node, a certain amount of energy moves from the input to the output of the power converter based on the normal minimum on-time. However, if at this time, the load needs no or only a small amount of power, the output voltage will rise. Some pulses are skipped to prevent the output voltage from rising too much. At this time, the voltage ripple of the output voltage also increases. Pulse skipping mode is usually activated by an overvoltage comparator on the feedback node. For example, if you skip pulses per second, you can see in the spectrum a switching frequency equivalent to half the set switching frequency (FFT notation).

Figure 3. LT3573 in pulse skipping mode with very low load.

Compared to burst mode, in pulse-skipping mode, simply keeping the output voltage within a certain range does not save a lot of power. Therefore, the conversion efficiency is only slightly improved. Therefore, if a switching regulator switches at a different switching frequency than the set frequency, it may be because the circuit is in burst mode or pulse skipping mode. However, there may be other reasons for the discontinuous pulses to appear at the switch node. These include: general control loop instability, reaching existing current limit, temperature exceeding thermal shutdown limit, etc.

in conclusion

Switch-mode power supplies are capable of pulsed operation at a different frequency than the intended switching frequency. This generally occurs under low load conditions. Understanding the mechanism behind this behavior can be very useful when evaluating switch-mode power supply circuits. Designers can use this as a basis to accurately infer whether the power supply is operating reliably.

Editor’s note: On September 23-25, 2020, the SensorChina2020 exhibition was held in Shanghai. In this special year, many domestic local sensor manufacturers have become the protagonists of this exhibition. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the development trend of these local companies in the sensor field, Ms. Cao Lanlan, manager of the overseas business department of Zhengzhou Weisheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.

Weisheng Technology is affiliated to Hanwei Group. Weisheng Electronics’ sensor business is an important part of the entire industrial chain from sensors to smart meters to systems. In 2020, the sensor business segment of the entire Hanwei Group maintained a relatively good growth rate, and the growth of epidemic-related products including traditional fields basically met the group’s expectations.

Reporter: Gas detection is the basic technology of your company. Could you please introduce the specific application of this sensor product?

Cao Lanlan: The sensor business of Hanwei Group operates independently under the brand of Weisheng Technology. Weisheng Technology started with the research and development and production of gas sensors.

Gas sensors include various types of sensors, including safety, security, and environmental protection, as well as those used in the medical field, such as forehead thermometers, ventilators, and more. Of course, it also includes other health fields, including current consumer electronics, and there will also be products from other sectors that are used in the Bluetooth headsets we are doing now. These projects are products in different fields.

At present, Weisheng Technology’s sensor business is mainly based on gas detection as a whole, and also includes a series of product sensor categories such as other pressure, flow, infrared, etc., forming a relatively complete sensor product layout.

Reporter: 2020 is a special year. Although the overall market is adversely affected by the epidemic, the medical sensor market is on the rise. May I ask about the development of your company’s sensor business performance this year.

Cao Lanlan: Weisheng Technology’s sensor business segment is divided into two parts, one domestic market and one foreign market. Overall, they have maintained a relatively good upward momentum. The specific data depends on the information in the company’s annual report. For listed companies, the final disclosed data shall prevail.

Reporter: In the first half of this year, the epidemic has driven the development of the medical sensor business to be relatively good. What will the situation in the second half of the year be like?

Cao Lanlan: In fact, it means that the development forecast in the post-epidemic era. In the first half of the year, Weisheng Technology responded well to the sudden changes in the market, and the product structure and supply chain resource allocation were optimized. At the same time, with the support of the group company, Weisheng Technology Co., Ltd. Sheng Technology’s sensor products will enter more new application fields next.

For example, MEMS products to be planned in the future, water quality, infrared detection, etc. Taking the infrared detection sensor as an example, Weisheng Technology has been making layout and laying the groundwork. The emergence of the epidemic has suddenly led to an explosive growth of this product. Next, Weisheng Technology will focus on opening up the sensor industry chain, integrating related technologies, products, Services and application solutions will be better and stronger.

Reporter: You just said that the sensor of the entire Hanwei Group is mainly from Weisheng. What is the overall scale of this sensor, including revenue? What is the proportion of Weisheng sensor in the whole group of Hanwei?

Cao Lanlan: Generally speaking, Weishengye’s technology business sector is still a relatively large business sector in Hanwei Group, and it is also the core basic business of the entire group. All other products are based on sensors.

The sensor products of Weisheng Technology are in a leading position in the domestic market. For example, the proportion of gas sensors can reach 70% or even 80%, and the market share is relatively large.

Reporter: I pay more attention to automotive applications. Are there any applications in the automotive field?

Cao Lanlan: Products in the automotive field are currently being promoted in the market for smoke testing, flammable and explosive testing, front-loading, and rear-loading. In the future, as the automotive market matures, more A series of products such as MEMS are also under normal design, including improvement and promotion. Our show will also have a show about automotive electronics.

Reporter: Is your company’s main product still gas sensors?

Cao Lanlan: It should be said that the main product started with gas. Now with the development of the entire business and the addition of product lines, the market share of products such as infrared detection, pressure and flow is also increasing year by year.

Reporter: Which sensors will have more application scenarios in the second half of the year?

Cao Lanlan: We have a wide variety of products, so we have been saying that sometimes we face a lot of sudden changes in the market. We are not too afraid. Only in the second half of the year, including next year and the year after, we may focus on the sensors. The first product that everyone is very familiar with is miniaturization, low power consumption, and intelligence. It is a MEMS product. Our application is relatively complete, including consumer electronics, environmental protection, health, and security. We will make this product in the future. Refinement, marketization and mass production are the key tasks in the future. Another important aspect of our future is how to package products as a systematic solution to provide customers with more types of products.

Reporter: Since the beginning of this year, the external environment has fluctuated greatly due to political reasons. Do you think this external environment will have any impact on you?

Cao Lanlan: I think it has an impact, but the impact is not particularly large. First of all, our products, especially in foreign markets, should be very old. For 10 or 20 years, foreign customers have a certain degree of recognition of our brand, and there is another product that meets customer requirements in terms of overall performance. We are also very supportive. I am confident, many products are made in China and abroad, but our product is technically speaking, from a simple application, from foreigners, they have this hope that it can be easily operated, because of cost reduction, this product is a foreign product from other countries. Our products cannot be compared, we have our own advantages, it can be said that they have to choose such a degree. So the external environment will have an impact, but it may be within our controllable range.

Reporter: Could you briefly summarize the competitiveness of Weisheng Technology and is cost control an important factor?

Cao Lanlan: The competitiveness of Weisheng Technology’s sensor products may be reflected in several aspects. The first is to affirm that the domestic cost is lower than the foreign cost; the second is the scale effect of mass production. As more and more mass-produced products are produced, it may be There will be advantages in purchasing raw materials. Slowly, with the increase of products, many automated equipment will be added. The automation consistency of products will be better, and products will be improved. The last point is continuous technological innovation. Doing the best product can get a higher profit.

According to foreign media reports, recently, Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) announced the launch of N series 1200V silicon carbide MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors), which have low power loss and high self-turn-on tolerance. Help reduce power consumption and realize the miniaturization of electric vehicle (EV) on-board chargers, photovoltaic power systems and other power supply systems (which need to convert high voltages). Product samples will be shipped in July this year.

(Image credit: Mitsubishi Electric)

Mitsubishi Electric will also showcase its new N-series 1200V SiC-MOSFETs at major trade shows, including 2020 PCIM Asia (Shanghai International Power components, Renewable Energy Management Exhibition) to be held in Shanghai, China from November 16-18 on Display.

Features:

1. Reduce power consumption and realize miniaturization of power supply system

A. Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) doping technology not only reduces switching losses and on-resistance of 1200V SiC-MOSFETs, but also allows them to achieve an industry-leading figure of merit (FOM) of 1,450mΩ·nC. The power consumption of 1200V SiC-MOSFETs used in power supply systems is reduced by about 85% compared to the use of conventional silicon insulated gate gate transistors (Si-IGBTs).

B. By reducing mirror capacitance (stray capacitance existing between gate and drain in MOSFET structure), the self-turn-on tolerance of 1200V SiC-MOSFET is improved by 14 times compared to competitor products. Therefore, a fast switching operation can be achieved and switching losses can be reduced.

C. Due to the reduced switching power loss, the miniaturization and simplification of the cooling system and peripheral components (such as the reactor) can be achieved by driving power semiconductors with higher carrier frequencies, thereby helping to reduce the cost of the entire power supply system. size.

2. There are six 1200V SiC-MOSFETs, including AEC-Q101 compliant models, for a variety of applications

A, N series 1200V SiC-MOSFET products include models that meet the AEC-Q101 specification of the American Automotive Electronics Council, so this product is not only suitable for industrial applications such as photovoltaic systems, but also for electric vehicle on-board chargers.

As we all know, in the whole process of chips, wafer manufacturing is the most critical and the core part with the largest market share. Its high technical content and complex process play a vital role in the chip production process.

After the rise of TSMC, the design, packaging and testing of integrated circuits were gradually separated from IDM, and finally the professional link of wafer foundry was formed.

The chip foundry industry, after being separated from IDM, has also expanded its market size year by year, and the global wafer manufacturing market has grown rapidly. Data show that in the first quarter of 2021, the top 10 chip foundries in the world have a revenue of US$22.89 billion, a year-on-year growth rate of 20.7%. In the whole year of 2021, the chip foundry market will be close to 100 billion US dollars.

Coupled with the global shortage of cores in the second half of last year, these foundries are also continuously expanding their production capacity to meet the growing market demand.

But from a practical point of view, with the growth of these production capacities, we are increasingly seeing a reality that production capacity is gradually shifting to mainland China, which means that the third semiconductor transfer is really coming.

As shown in the figure above, this is the statistics of a certain organization. In the past three years, the expansion plans of the world’s major foundry companies include major manufacturers such as TSMC, intel, Samsung, UMC, GF, and SMIC.

From this figure, we can see that most of the production capacity growth areas are located in mainland China. At the same time, manufacturers in mainland China have expanded chip production lines. The planned production capacity release time is mainly concentrated in 202-2022. between.

According to SEMI data, there are 62 semiconductor fabs put into production worldwide from 2017 to 2020, of which 26 are located in mainland China, accounting for 42% of the global total, and it is expected that at least 38 new fabs will be added from 2020 to 2024. 12-inch fab.

In the past few decades, the semiconductor industry has undergone two transfers. One was in the 1980s, when it was transferred from the United States to Japan. As a result, Japanese semiconductors rose, and even once became the world’s largest chip exporter, surpassing the United States.

Later, the United States intervened and abolished the Japanese semiconductor industry, so it made a second transfer in the 1990s, from Japan to South Korea and Taiwan, China, and there was the rise of Samsung and TSMC.

Now it is obvious that from the perspective of these expanded production capacities, the semiconductor industry is undergoing a third transfer, with the destination being mainland China. Next, the domestic semiconductor industry chain will usher in a new round of real business cycles.