Subdivision accounts for more than 50%! This domestic sensor manufacturer has entered the Guodian and Xiaomi ecological chains

Subdivision accounts for more than 50%! This domestic sensor manufacturer has entered the Guodian and Xiaomi ecological chains

Source: Starling Core Author: Joey

Sensors are the entrance of data collection and the basis and core of big data analysis. In recent years, with the deepening application of AIOT in various fields, the global data volume has shown explosive growth, which has greatly promoted the demand for smart sensors.

Recently, a reporter from the “Entering the Industry Chain” column of Core Starlings interviewed Guo Guiliang, CEO of Zhongke Yinhexin, a leading domestic environmental sensor manufacturer, to discuss the current development of Zhongke Yinhexin under the background of the rapid development of domestic sensors in the AIOT era. And the prospect of the future development of the industry. The annual shipment of temperature sensors has exceeded 10 million pieces, which can realize the PIN TO PIN replacement of similar products from Texas Instruments.

It is understood that Zhongke Galaxy Core was established in 2018. It is a provider of mid-to-high-end environmental sensor chips, focusing on the R&D and sales of chips for temperature, humidity, moisture, pressure, single bus, and signal conditioning. Its products are widely used in automotive electronics. , industrial control, white goods, consumer electronics, smart agriculture, Internet of Things and other fields, the current sales are close to 100 million yuan. Our company was incubated in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the start-up team actually began to take shape in 2010. As early as 2014, our team developed the first distributed temperature sensor in China. On this basis, in 2015, we started to develop high-precision temperature products, and realized the first high-precision temperature sensor product in 2017. Successfully developed. Guo Guiliang introduced to the reporter that in order to realize the commercialization of this product, we established Zhongke Yinhexin Company in 2018. Up to now, we have formed more than 50 products in three series: temperature sensor, temperature and humidity sensor, and single bus. Annual shipments have reached tens of millions.

In terms of temperature sensors, Zhongke Yinhe Core currently has a relatively complete product line, and a series of products covering single-wire, two-wire and three-wire interfaces have achieved mass production and shipment, and have improved in temperature measurement range, accuracy, speed, and power consumption. And other technical indicators are already at the leading level in the industry.

Specifically, the temperature measurement accuracy range of the company’s single-wire temperature sensor is ±0.6°C-0.1°C, the resolution can reach up to 14bit, the fastest temperature measurement speed can reach 2ms, and the power consumption is less than 1uA, with the highest standard electrostatic protection capability in the industry . Due to the characteristics of large-area multi-point distributed temperature measurement, it can be widely used in industries with high temperature requirements such as intelligent grain storage, industrial temperature measurement, flue-cured tobacco industry, drug storage, power grid, and medical equipment; and 2/3-wire interface The package size of the temperature sensor chip series products can be as small as 1.8*1.3mm, the conversion speed is as fast as 2ms, the temperature measurement range is between -55°C~+150°C, the temperature accuracy is from ±0.1°C to ±1°C, and the average power The power consumption is only 1uA, which can meet the requirements of different communication methods and communication speeds. It has been widely used in various scenarios with temperature measurement requirements such as industry and consumption.

Take GX112, a digital temperature sensor chip with high-precision and fast temperature measurement as an example, this product can provide 12-bit high-precision digital temperature output through the I2C/SMBus interface, and the fastest temperature conversion speed is 26ms. In addition, this product also supports fully calibrated digital output, with a typical accuracy of ±0.5°C, a wide temperature range of -55°C~150°C, a conversion current of 7uA, and a quiescent current of less than 1uA. In terms of product performance, PIN TO PIN can completely replace Texas Instruments’ TMP112 product.

Guo Guiliang said: Temperature sensors are a product line that our company has focused on research and development since its establishment in 2018. At present, it is developing relatively rapidly. To meet the needs of different fields, we have developed more than 30 types of temperature sensors with digital and analog interfaces. Among them, in the field of intelligent grain storage, our main product is GX1820, and now we have become the first in this field in China; in the industrial field, we have mass-produced low-cost, high-speed GX1832 series products, and have achieved Industrial probes and other subdivisions have been shipped in batches; in addition, we also have products such as the GX75C series used in the server field, and the GS51 series for remote and local temperature measurement, which are also currently in large-scale shipments. From the perspective of sales volume, in 2021, the sales volume of our seven A-level suppliers in China Grain Storage (such as Huamai, Kexin, Shuoren, etc.), State Grid, and Xiaomi Ecological Chain has exceeded 10 million.

Temperature and humidity sensors have been applied in batches in smart home and other fields, and the supply of single-bus series chips is in short supply, forming a good reputation in the industry

With the continuous improvement of living standards, people are becoming more and more aware of the impact of the external humidity environment on the physical and mental health of individuals, and have further extended their attention to temperature to the field of temperature and humidity.

Humidity and temperature indicators are the same, because they are closely related to people’s lives, they are often considered together. Therefore, temperature and humidity integrated sensors have emerged as the times require, and have been introduced into monitoring applications in various industries. Such as air conditioners, refrigerators, humidifiers, air purifiers and other household appliances, testing and testing equipment, various warehouses, automobiles, cold chain vehicles, hatching poultry and other related humidity detection and control fields. In the future, with the advancement and development of technology, temperature and humidity sensors are expected to improve in the direction of high precision, multi-function, and high stability, and will also have broader prospects in the fields of industry, electronic communications, and the Internet of Things. Guo Guiliang said.

Started research and development in 2018, after finalization, mass production, serialization and other development processes, Zhongke Yinhe core has formed a temperature and humidity sensor product line that supports I2C and single bus interface standards, and the temperature accuracy is from ± 0.1 ℃ to ± 0.5 GXHT30, GXHT31, GXHT3L, GXHTC3, GXHT3W, GXHT30A, GXHT01 and other products with accuracy errors ranging from ± 5%RH to ± 1.8%RH in ℃ and humidity can meet various temperature and humidity measurement needs of users in different fields.

Taking GXHT30 as an example, this product is a high-precision fully integrated temperature and humidity sensor. The fastest communication speed can reach 1MHz through the I2C interface, and the supported temperature measurement range is -45°C~+130°C. The typical temperature accuracy ±0.3℃; the humidity measurement range that can be provided is 0-100%RH, and the typical humidity accuracy is ±3%RH; in addition, the fastest temperature conversion speed of this product is 2.5ms under 16-bit resolution, and the power consumption is extremely low , the power consumption under quiescent current is only 150nA, the package size is only 2.5mm*2.5mm*0.9mm /2mm*2mm*0.75mm, and it also has functions such as hardware alarm, optional address, and optional conversion speed.

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Zhongke Yinhe core temperature and humidity sensor series GXHT30 products

Source: Zhongke Yinhexin

The temperature and humidity sensor is a product line that we have focused on developing in the past two years. Because temperature and humidity need to compensate each other, we integrate it on a single chip to achieve small size, high precision, fast speed, low power consumption, and consistent Strong and other advantages.

Guo Guiliang pointed out that this series of products has been relatively complete since its development. Among them, GXHT30 is mainly used in the fields of industry and home appliances that require high reliability, GXHTC3 is mainly used in consumer electronics and other fields that require relatively high cost performance, and GXHT3W It is a product specially designed for the field of intelligent grain storage. It uses single-wire technology and can hang dozens or even hundreds of temperature and humidity sensors on a bus. It is very suitable for large-scale, multi-point granaries. For measurement applications, our products have passed various tests at present, and will be widely used in the field of grain storage in the future.

It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, the inventory of international brands of similar products of single-bus memory chips has run out, and there are only a handful of domestic alternative products. In this context, with the endorsement of hard-core technology, Zhongke Yinhexin has independently developed electronic label chips, single-bus storage, encryption authentication chips, switch chips, interface chips and other products, and is gradually moving towards import substitution.

Guo Guiliang said: The company’s single-bus chip adopts a highly reliable process, and it has basically achieved localization from design, tape-out, packaging to testing, and can replace similar products from overseas major Maxim. With good performance and reputation, our products have been exported to Italy, Germany, the United States and other countries, and the supply of products is in short supply. Many customers have given us order plans one year in advance. At present, this series has been used in smart optical fiber ODN equipment, printer cartridges , Scalpel, encrypted authentication and other fields have achieved mass shipments.

Taking technology as the foundation, and relying on the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it has gradually developed into a top supplier of temperature/temperature and humidity sensors in China

A sensor is a device that can sense a specified measured value and convert it into a usable output signal according to certain rules. It is a bridge connecting the physical world and the digital world.

In recent years, driven by the continuous demand for intelligent and digital markets in the fields of automobiles, industrial automation, medical care, environmental protection, and consumption, sensors have gradually developed from traditional to intelligent, and the market scale has also continued to expand. According to CCID Consulting data, in 2020, the global sensor market size will be 160.63 billion US dollars, of which the smart sensor market will reach 35.81 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.3% of the overall scale; according to its forecast, by 2023 the global sensor and global smart sensor market size will They will reach USD 203.22 billion and USD 48.72 billion respectively.

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The main market size of global sensors from 2018 to 2023 (unit: US$100 million)

Source: CCID Consulting

In the temperature sensor market, the continuous growth of demand from industries such as smart wear and healthcare has driven the continuous expansion of the temperature sensor market. According to Markets and Markets, the global temperature sensor market size is expected to grow from US$5.9 billion in 2021 to US$8 billion in 2028, with a CAGR of 4.5% in the next seven years.

From the perspective of working principle, since the sensor mainly transforms the measured information such as sound, light, temperature, humidity, etc., into electrical signals or other required forms according to certain rules for information output, it is essentially within the scope of analog chips. . Therefore, at present, the main players in this industry are still head simulation manufacturers such as TI, ADI (MAXIM), ST, Microchip, etc., and the competition pattern is relatively stable. Among them, TI, ST, and ADI (MAXIM) have great advantages in the field of temperature sensors, while Sensirion, Tyco TE, and TI are at the leading level in the industry in humidity sensors.

Although China is the largest consumer market for sensors, the current domestic mid-to-high-end sensor market is mainly monopolized by manufacturers such as TI, ADI, Sensirion, and Tyco TE. The domestic self-sufficiency rate is still low, and no absolute leader has yet emerged. Therefore, this gives us domestic manufacturers a huge space for localization substitution.

Regarding the current development status of the sensor industry, Guo Guiliang analyzed that compared with other manufacturers, our company is more focused on technology, making breakthroughs from the point of temperature sensors that we are best at, and then expanding to temperature and humidity after reaching the international first-line level. And finally to pressure and other sensor chips. At present, our temperature sensor in the field of intelligent grain storage has broken the monopoly of international manufacturers such as MAXIM, and our market share in this segment has exceeded 50%. In addition, in the field of temperature and humidity sensors, we have also shipped on a large scale, which can completely replace the same type of products from Sensirion in Switzerland in terms of performance. In this field, our market share has also ranked in the forefront of the industry.

As a company incubated and grown in the Chinese Academy of Sciences system, since its establishment, Zhongke Yinhexin has continuously obtained Chinese Academy of Sciences Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Chuangxing, and Chinese Academy of Sciences Innovation in the seed round, angel round, Pre-A round, and A round of the Chinese Academy of Sciences system. With the support of investment and other capital, and recently completed the B round of financing from industrial capital such as Xiaomi Group and Changfa Development. According to Guo Guiliang, in the future, the company will mainly introduce more relevant strategic investors such as automobiles, home appliances, and the Internet of Things, which have a high degree of synergy with the company’s development, based on the company’s current market application situation.

Guo Guiliang said: Our team is mainly from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is a technical background and a company based on technology. At present, the company’s R&D investment in the past two years accounts for nearly 60% of the company’s revenue. The focus of R&D is mainly on higher precision, higher reliability, higher temperature and humidity sensor chips and other analog chips. In addition, we are now focusing on the layout and investment of temperature and temperature and humidity sensors in the smart cockpit, battery, air conditioner, camera and other fields of automotive electronics. I believe this will become a very important market for us in the future.

After entering the IoT era, the explosion of demand for information collection has prompted the rapid development of the entire sensor market. For China’s sensor industry, although a complete system from research and development, production to application has been initially formed, there is still a gap with the international advanced level, and high-end sensors are heavily dependent on imports.

Zhongke Yinhexin takes temperature sensors as the entry point, and continuously expands its own capability boundaries. Now it has formed three core business product lines with temperature sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and single-bus products as the core. In the future, the company is expected to gradually develop into a top domestic provider of mid-to-high-end sensor products while realizing the replacement of products from major foreign manufacturers.