Because of the Huawei incident, in 2018, the domestic chip boom began, and the entrepreneurial enthusiasm was soaring, opening the golden decade of the Chinese chip industry.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Semiconductor Industry Watch” (ID: Icbank), author Zhong Lin.
Because of the Huawei incident, the domestic chip boom began in 2018, and the entrepreneurial passion was soaring, opening the golden decade of the Chinese chip industry.
In 2018, San Wuwei was established and chose to design the WIFI RF front-end chip. The road to entrepreneurship is painful and happy, and it has been a year in a blink of an eye.
Because of dreams, start a business
Graduate graduate in 2004, I deliberately chose the chip industry, when the domestic chips were almost blank.
China used to be beaten in the past; China is now lagging behind and sanctioning. The backwardness of China’s chip technology will not only affect the national life, but also affect China’s national security. It is imperative to develop China’s semiconductor chip technology. Born in this era, there should be the responsibility of this era. At present, Chinese semiconductor people must shoulder this responsibility and strive to catch up with foreign chip technology.
Change, belongs to everyone’s opportunities and pursuits. Because of dreams, I started a business.
Entrepreneurship can bring vitality to the industry and stimulate innovation. Entrepreneurship, only winners, no losers. The courage and dedication of entrepreneurs is a success in itself, dare to practice for dreams, and dare to challenge themselves to surpass themselves. Don’t worry about the overheating of the chip industry, and don’t worry about too many chip startups. Most of the chip companies are making products and making breakthroughs and innovations. Once you start a business, you are thinking about how to succeed and how to win in technology and products. This time, the wave of chip entrepreneurship will open a new chapter in the Chinese chip industry, which will eventually leave a valuable asset to the Chinese chip industry, especially technology and talent.
Overview of the current domestic RF industry, domestic RF front-end chips account for only 10% of the global RF front-end chip market. But with the arrival of 5G, the demand for RF devices will increase dramatically. The analyst firm predicts that by 2023, the RF front-end market is expected to exceed $35.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 14%. The fast-growing market has seen opportunities for the domestic RF chip industry, and new RF companies are constantly emerging.
Standing on the tuyere, the pigs will fly. The times create heroes, after some thinking and discussion, determined to start a business. The next step is to choose which direction of the RF front-end chip?
1. Mobile PA direction:
(1) 2G PA is Angray Microelectronics (formerly Beijing Han Tianxia) CMOS PA has a market share of 70%, and its performance and cost are very good.
(2) 3G PA, the market demand is already decreasing, the total amount is about 20KK/M. Angui Microelectronics (formerly Beijing Hantianxia), Luoda, Zhanrui and Feifei are all supplying.
(3)4G PA, this is a difficult road. The existing 4G PA domestic manufacturers basically do not make money, and can’t open the distance in technology and products in a short time, the high-end can’t do it, the low-end kills There are seven or eight prices at random.
(4) 5G PA, it feels like a pit, 4G PA can’t be killed, don’t think about 5G PA, let alone 5G PA modularization, the technical difficulty is greatly increased.
2. RF switch direction: Zhuoshengwei has a unique position. In RF devices, the technical difficulty of RF switches is the lowest, and the cost of switch DIE only accounts for 20~30%. The cost, 70~80% of the cost is determined by the package test. Zhuo Shengwei has minimized costs through operations and economic scale. In addition, companies such as Vail, Aiwei, Feifei, and Jiamei are also doing RF switches.
3. Filter Direction: The outlook is beautiful and the road is very tortuous. Not to mention the technical difficulty, the filter is a burning direction, but also burns time. If you want to do a good job of mobile phone filters, there are not a few hundred million, not more than five years, basically impossible.
4.WIFI PA/FEM direction: This is a relatively niche market. The technical difficulty of WIFI PA is not low, so the domestic mobile phone PA company did not increase the investment of human resources and resources. . In addition to Taiwan’s Richwave, the earliest mainland to start developing this product is Lei Xunke and Kang Xi. In 2018 last year, after four years of research and development, the two companies just launched products in the market.
Finally, in combination with its own resources, the startup team chose WIFI PA / WIFI FEM.
Because of entrepreneurship, so desperately
Entrepreneurship is to fight and seize the hills. Entrepreneurs are warriors, fearless setbacks and failures, and they are desperate.
Entrepreneurship is a life, an attitude, an experience, and a spirit. In this process, there are many hardships and tempers, and those who have passed through know the hardships and need entrepreneurs to have a very strong character and spirit. Only by dare to desperately, on the road of entrepreneurship, can we overcome difficulties and setbacks, and we can win the battle with the brave.
A person who works hard can’t make a company. Only the entrepreneurial team works hard together, and the company members work hard together to succeed in a company.
In the early days of the business, things are a little bit here. There is a little bit of things, but there are not many things.Everyone needs to do it, and it is impossible to find a person to do it alone in each place. Otherwise, it will lead to more company personnel, fewer things, and nothing to do every day. In this way, it is neither economic nor disruptive. Over time, it will develop the habit of loose and leisurely employees, leaving hidden dangers for the subsequent development and management of the company. Therefore, the entrepreneurial team members have to work hard. Everyone needs to be an expert in a certain field, but also a generalist. Only in this way can we build a business platform and operate the company.
There is a desperate, called the pursuit of the ultimate. From the first day of entrepreneurship, the goal of the R&D team is to strive to be the first in the country. It is not easy to develop a chip product, and it is even more difficult to make the product the first in the country. Others are desperate, we can only be more desperate than others. After starting a business, R & D personnel have been working and staying at work, often staying up late, they say that late at night is often the most clear time, the most inspirational time. So, we have our own slogan: desperately, speak with products.
The process of working hard is also a moving process. I was touched by my colleagues and moved by myself.
She is called Vivian, the personnel and administration of Jinjiang local recruitment. She is active, communicative, and quickly integrated into the company team. With the development of the business, the company began to have a little production, she took the initiative to work part-time production assistant; later the company had a little sales, she also took the initiative to work as a sales assistant. The company proposed to add a person to share her work. She felt that there were not many things, and she was too busy to come and suggested that the business should be more people. Under her efforts, all kinds of business carried out smoothly, but there were more things, and it was inevitable that something went wrong. On one occasion, she made a mistake in her work and finally solved it. It did not cause any impact and loss, but she cried. Responsible for not doing things well. I was moved, moved by the entrepreneurship, and moved to meet such a good colleague on the road to entrepreneurship.
Because of dreams, I started a business; because of entrepreneurship, I am desperate. At the beginning of the establishment of Sanwuwei, I was responsible for PM, sales, production and operation. The three positions were all in one, and the three business segments were me alone. If a person can smoothly coordinate and complete these three major tasks, it will help individuals form a systematic thinking, grasp every link and key points in the operation, and help the company to improve efficiency and build competitiveness. In addition, I began to try to write articles to improve the company and personal influence, influence is also productivity, chip startups need a lot of resources and all aspects of support, otherwise it is difficult to move. Do things during the day, write articles at night, often stay up until two or three in the morning. I wrote six articles in two months, one of which won the Youth League Plan Award for today’s headlines. These are desperate. Entrepreneurship can often stimulate a person’s potential.
Entrepreneurial process, learning process
Entrepreneurship is not a refuge for mediocrity, but a touchstone for the strong. Once on the stage of entrepreneurship, everything goes back to the original. No lighting effects rendering, no sound processing, the company gave you in the pastThe outer coat begins to peel off, showing your original state.
After starting a business, you are no longer you, you are still you.
The process of starting a business is also a process of learning. Some experiences are as follows:
1. Select a startup team
The founder of Zhenge Fund proposed that the importance of entrepreneurial partners outweighs business models and industry choices, and is more important than whether you are in the air.
The entrepreneurial team has to choose people who do things. The so-called reliable, that is, the promises given must be practiced, and the promised things should be done to the best of their ability. The bottom line is to let others trust your words and deeds and deliver things to you with confidence. Entrepreneurship is not a child’s play, shopping malls such as battlefields, the situation of the chip market every day is constantly changing, in the process of market competition, even a careless move, all the loses, so everyone in the entrepreneurial team must do things and have a role .
The entrepreneurial team must choose people with shared values. Only when team members agree with the company’s direction and goals can they truly cooperate with each other to form an invincible company as a whole. Every team member must put the company’s interests first, do things without boundaries, and everything the company needs to do on its own is its own business.
2. Management is decision making
Nobel laureate in economics, the famous American management scientist Simon said: Management is decision-making.
The process of starting a business is also a process of decision making. Some decisions will affect the success or failure of the company; some decisions will cause the company to waste manpower, material resources, and money; some decisions, in addition to people and property, waste time, and time is a very critical resource for startups.
When the venture started, the market demand for WIFI 5.8G 11ac FEM was very large. Although it was known that the MTK and Realtek platforms were developing and integrating 5.8G FEM, the judgment at that time was at least two years to replace, so the team decided. It is the priority to develop 5.8G 11ac FEM. As a result, customers have basically switched to the platform integrating 5.8G FEM in one year. The platform has revolutionized the life of 5.8G 11ac FEM. All WIFI RF front-end chip design companies have to turn to 5.8G 11ax FEM, while WIFI6 is only available in North America and Europe, when the market is up, it is difficult to predict.
For entrepreneurship, what is most needed is not 996, but the right decision. Startups don’t have the extra guns and bullets, they only have the ability to hit the target every time they hit. Entrepreneurs must have an open mind, brainstorm ideas, and collect more information; they must improve their judgment ability, correctly grasp and properly handle democratic decision-making and centralized decision-making. In the process of making chips, try not to go the wrong way and take fewer roads. From chip development and design, to wafer flow, to package testing, the whole process is a cost