Nowadays, the wave of automotive electrification, intelligence and big data application has come as scheduled. The automotive chip industry is developing rapidly. Facing fierce industrial competition, it is both an opportunity and a challenge for chip enterprises.
Although the road of independent innovation and application of automotive chips is extremely difficult, Datang NXP's independent technology products are still widely recognized by enterprises in the industry. Especially in the competition with large domestic and foreign manufacturers, Datang NXP gradually integrates into the new energy vehicle and energy storage industry chain ecology through highly differentiated technical products and occupies a certain late mover advantage.
Recently, Wang Yunlong, the general manager of Beijing Guoneng Evonik Energy Information Technology Co., Ltd. and the deputy editor in chief of the Energy Saving and New Energy Automobile Yearbook Preparation Office, interviewed Mr. Chen Jian, the deputy general manager of Datang Enzhipu, and exchanged views on the company's products, technology, market layout and prospects. The following is a transcript of the conversation:
Chen Jian
Deputy General Manager of Datang NXP
Wang Yunlong: How can the company ensure the continuous and stable innovation of technology products when multiple uncertainties in the chip market increase?
President Chen: As we all know, chips are the core technology of the technology industry. In the current international environment, the domestic chip industry is always facing uncertain risks such as technology bottlenecks and supply chain disruption. As a Chinese auto semiconductor enterprise, Datang NXP is deeply aware of the arduous task of industry development and is willing to make a contribution to the localization of core devices.
We are closely following the national carbon peak and carbon neutral strategy, focusing on the two super tracks of new energy vehicles and energy storage. Relying on the deep shareholder background and solid platform, we are developing characteristic battery management chips independently, focusing on innovation and breakthrough, developing IP products with market core competitiveness, and using them to solve the pain points of electric vehicles and energy storage, creating new value growth in the green wave.
In terms of talents, we strive to train the engineers of enterprises, and actively give them systematic training opportunities in terms of vehicle specification semiconductor design, process, advanced packaging, mass production testing, reliability, vehicle specification certification, functional safety compliance and certification. We sincerely hope that every employee can grow together with the enterprise. The enterprise can make continuous progress, and all employees have a stage to realize their personal value, which lays a foundation for retaining key talents of the enterprise and provides talent guarantee for the continuous and stable innovation of the company's technical products.
Our R&D platform has reached a very high maturity. Based on advanced design and manufacturing infrastructure, advanced mixed signal technology, zero defect strategy, functional safety expertise and experienced product development team, we focused on localization innovation, broke the situation that domestic BMS chips have always been highly dependent on imports, and successfully created DNB116x battery management chips that passed the ASIL-D certification of the highest functional safety level. This means that Datang NXP has the strength to compete with the world's top chip manufacturers on the AFE segment track, which is a milestone for the entire domestic BMS chip industry, while bringing customers standard products that meet the requirements of high safety. We have laid out four major categories of core IP groups, and formed nearly 100 invention patents, which enable us to continue platform based iteration of new products.
Wang Yunlong: In the highly competitive Chinese market of chip industry, how can Datang NXP establish a solid technological collaboration with the user enterprises of the industrial chain when the product cycle is long?
President Chen: On the one hand, our innovative products with market subversion can add unique value to customers, establish user stickiness, and further expand and standardize our innovative products, thus becoming a leader in the market of electric vehicles and industrial energy storage systems.
On the one hand, we must listen to the voice of customers. Our products, applications and markets have teams in North China, East China and South China. The purpose is to be closer to the actual situation of the domestic industry, deeply perceive customer needs and industry dynamics, and work with industrial chain users to innovate and develop technologies and products suitable for the domestic market.
At the same time, we also actively participate in industry activities, actively establish an all-round communication channel with the industry chain, including various summits, forums, national publications, industry standard formulation, etc., to obtain timely and accurate feedback on technical products, and provide a platform basis for establishing technology collaboration.
Wang Yunlong: What are the main application scenarios of the BMS chip technology product with integrated electrochemical impedance spectroscopy monitoring function unique to Datang NXP? What are the main advantages? What is the application prospect in vehicle and energy storage?
President Chen: First of all, although the battery cell and battery management system have been developing and evolving, the energy storage power station and electric vehicle still have frequent fires and explosions. It is our purpose and mission to protect battery safety. As for electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), there is a consensus among cell manufacturers and vehicle manufacturers in the industry that EIS is the most important parameter for monitoring the chemical substances inside the battery. Datang NXP integrated the electrochemical workstation with an average price of 300000 yuan into a small chip to realize the online monitoring of EIS in the full life cycle of the product, adding an important detection dimension to the current battery management system. Our "DNB" series products integrated with online EIS impedance monitoring function can provide the battery with functions such as off-line test of battery cells, thermal runaway management of battery cells, detection of faulty battery cells, online SOH detection throughout the life cycle of battery cells, recycling of battery cells, remote diagnosis of wireless BMS, etc.
Secondly, nowadays, the pack structure is simplified, such as CTC, CTP and CTB schemes, which have become the needs of more and more car enterprise customers. The DNB series product scheme can be perfectly adapted. The eCCS embedded battery connection system based on DNB series chips can save a lot of materials (no sampling line, connector, slave control board), save the space occupied by the slave control board in the traditional scheme, achieve higher space utilization, effectively improve the energy density, and reduce the assembly work in the production process. The simplified design of the DNB scheme can effectively use the Z-axis space of the battery pack and perfectly match the demands of CTC, CTP and CTB. In addition, the DNB chip based solution can provide each cell with the EIS function as well as a temperature sensor, providing dual security for the cell safety
New energy vehicles and industrial energy storage are very similar in electronic monitoring and battery management: both involve voltage and temperature monitoring to ensure the safe operation of the battery; Both are related to equalization to ensure that the power of each battery is consistent; Both also focus on online EIS monitoring, hoping to achieve faster charging, more accurate health status description and higher security. Datang NXP's online EIS measurement technology is in a leading position in the global market - it not only completes the on-chip integration of EIS IP, enabling battery system developers to understand the deep state of the battery, optimize the use of the battery, improve the power limit of the battery, and predict safety risks in the early stage, but also develops other core IPs, and all IPs can work together in a very complex battery system environment. In combination with the advanced BCD wafer technology that has been mass produced for many years, the mature development process, and the ISO26262 certification of the highest security level, Datang NXP has become the preferred partner of more and more customers.
Wang Yunlong: Looking at the development law of chip industry at home and abroad, what is the commercial prospect of the company's EIS technology? What is the significance to the domestic chip industry?
President Chen: At present, our chip integrating online EIS monitoring function has been applied in several fields of industrial energy storage, including fault cell detection of energy storage systems in base stations and data centers, offline screening of cell production, etc. At the same time, most of the leading customers of global cell plants/automobile plants/system integrators are investing in real money and silver, Closely carry out advanced application and system integration projects based on online EIS monitoring with us. It can be said that we have been fully recognized by the market. Next, we will continue to work with our industry colleagues to turn EIS into a technology that benefits all.
Wang Yunlong: In terms of technological innovation, your company has already made a lot of achievements. In addition to the products of independent technological innovation, what are the competitive advantages between your company and foreign large factories?
President Chen: In the competition with domestic and foreign peers, in terms of market layout, we have been developing and manufacturing based on vehicle specification since the beginning, including wafer process, seal test, AEC-Q100 certification, ISO26,262 functional safety certification, etc. This layout enables our product family to cover both EV market and industrial energy storage market. Otherwise, it will take 3-5 years of additional R&D cycle to cover the EV market once the layout of the first work plan is changed to the vehicle plan.
In terms of capacity assurance, we have a corresponding backup on the supply chain layout of the wafer and sealed test, which can cope with the rising orders.
In terms of customer support, "professional, fast and efficient" is the label of our combat team. Customer oriented, more professional and faster solution to customer problems is the core strength for us to constantly make more market breakthroughs.
Wang Yunlong: Under the trend of Sino US competition and anti globalization, supply chain security is getting more and more attention. What are your company's considerations on supply chain security?
President Chen: First of all, we focus on establishing cooperation with high-quality suppliers to provide support for our business (such as product manufacturing, application development and distribution), which is very helpful and crucial for our product and business development.
Secondly, as you said, many customers are also very concerned about production capacity and supply. As I mentioned just now, we have established more than one supplier system in every link of product manufacturing, including wafer manufacturing, packaging, testing, etc., which enables us to cope with the impact of many uncertainties on our capacity and supply in the global environment.
At the same time, according to our market observation, except for a few customers with special requirements for the supply chain, the cost performance ratio of products is still the most important concern of most customers. When our products already have a considerable degree of differentiation and core competitiveness, on the one hand, we will fully consider the supply chain security, on the other hand, we will also make a reasonable balance between the supply chain and product competitiveness.
