IPhone 8 will explode wireless charging market

Release date：2017-03-16   Views：2481

The news that the iPhone 8 is about to adopt wireless charging once again makes the entire industry chain eager to try.

Although WPC wireless charging alliance has developed magnetic induction technology in 2007, and some mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung, Nokia, motorcycle and HTC have adopted it successively, due to the poor experience and the difficulty in forming the scale of the industrial chain, the development of wireless charging has been slow for more than ten years, and it is still waiting for the wind.

However, in recent years, as the mobile phone brand manufacturers for the appearance of nearly stringent requirements, the trend of non porous mobile phones has become inevitable; in addition, under the continuous stimulation of the pain point of battery life, the wireless charging market is infinitely close to the outbreak stage. In September this year, once the iPhone adopts wireless charging, the market will be completely exploded, and wireless charging is expected to become an industrial revolution dominated by iPhone again after fingerprint identification.

"Today is the era of cable charging. In three years, it will evolve into the era of wired and wireless charging, and it will become the era of wireless charging in the future." Analysts in Soochow electronics industry said that from the functional point of view, due to the stronger connectivity of mobile phones, the seamless connection between terminals can be realized, such as projectors, monitors, etc., it will become an inevitable trend for mobile phones to replace laptops, but the problem of mobile phones replacing laptops needs to be solved, and wireless charging can perfectly solve the charging problems of mobile terminals in the process of mobile. "We think it is an inevitable trend for mobile phones to use wireless charging technology in the future."

Domestic chips compete with international giants

In fact, wireless charging is a high barrier industry. At present, wireless charging industry chain involves wireless charging chip, module design, magnetic material coil and antenna and other enterprises. "In addition to apple, Samsung has been planning wireless charging scheme. However, unlike apple, Apple's wireless charging scheme will be completed by itself, while Samsung will be handed over to a third-party solution company." According to industry experts, it is difficult for mobile phone manufacturers to complete the wireless charging industry alone. However, the fingerprint identification and NFC modules used by apple are all designed by ourselves with a complete closed structure, which makes Apple fully capable of developing wireless charging technology, while Samsung mainly relies on suppliers to provide technical support. From the domestic supply chain point of view, although many companies are actively developing wireless charging technology, there are few suppliers specializing in wireless charging technology.

From the overall industrial chain distribution, wireless charging is divided into transmitter and receiver, and receiver can be divided into chip and module.

According to the author's understanding, wireless charging chip includes hardware, software, protocol and other power management systems required for wireless charging. However, due to the high barriers, it is mainly controlled by foreign giants, such as IDT and Qualcomm in the United States, and some domestic start-up companies with earlier layout, such as Yichong wireless. It is worth mentioning that as a start-up company, easy impact wireless emerged in the industry less than two years ago. The reason why it can quickly cut into the field of wireless charging chips and compete with international giants lies in the fact that the core members of Yichong wireless's team have been working in well-known international companies for many years, participated in the formulation of China's wireless charging standard, and developed the world's first wireless charging system widely applicable to mobile phones and other mobile terminals, achieving the wireless charging standard Compatible, efficient transmission and environmental protection. At present, easygoing wireless products include wireless charging chips and wireless charging solutions applied in various scenarios. The products have multi-mode solutions and are compatible with WPC and airfuel standards. At present, it has reached a strategic cooperation relationship with many domestic mobile phone brand manufacturers.

In addition, the wireless charging module mainly includes three parts: coil, magnetic material and graphene. The three parts are combined to form a wireless charging module with a thickness of less than 300 μ m, which can be pasted in the back cover of the terminal. The module and IC chip cooperate to form the receiver wireless charging system. The system exchanges information at software and protocol level through IC chip, and transfers electric energy in control module. The representatives of domestic enterprises include information maintenance communication, etc.

(the following are domestic wireless charging supply chain related enterprises)

类别	企业	布局
无线充电芯片/方案设计	易冲无线	团队核心成员曾任职行业国际知名公司，并参与制订了中国无线充电标准，做到了无线充电标准的兼容、高效传输以及绿色环保。目前易冲的无线充电方案设计具备多模方案，实现兼容WPC和AirFuel标准
方案设计	中兴通讯	国内无线充电先行者，推出一整套全程无人值守的全自动解决方案，集合无线充电技术、APP支付、云端管理、自动运营、远程监控等全自动的端到端解决方案。
方案设计/材料/天线/模组一体化	信维通信	全球无线充电技术领军者，可提供多种磁性无线充电/NFC二合一方案；无线充电天线技术研发，供应三星配套的NFC无线充电模块；并购亚力盛与信维蓝沛，加码无线充电等业务。
无线充电线圈	顺络电子	无线充电线圈产品已实现量产，客户多为国内知名品牌。
无线充电线圈/天线/模组	硕贝德	是最早加入无线充电联盟(WPC)的会员之一。无线充电收发圈和模组可用于智能手机、穿戴设备、汽车。
磁性材料	天通股份	软磁行业的龙头企业，以软磁材料为切入点布局在无线充电领域，包括无线充电发射及接受线圈。
	横店东磁	软磁材料供应给苹果无线充电领域iwatch产品
外壳材料	劲胜精密	拥有无线充电结构相关专利，并正在开发无线充电陶瓷电池盖技术
模组	立讯精密	全球无线充电技术领军者，可提供多种磁性无线充电/NFC二合一方案；无线充电天线技术研发，供应三星配套的NFC无线充电模块；并购亚力盛与信维蓝沛，加码无线充电等业务。
测试认证	欣旺达	全资子公司普瑞赛斯是世界无线充电联盟（WPC）的成员，同时也是WPC全球授权的14家测试中心之一，能够独立完成对无线充电产品的QI认证

 

Analysis of three technical routes

At present, there are two mainstream standards for wireless charging, including WPC and airfuel. The technical route includes magnetic induction, magnetic resonance, microwave, etc.

WPC alliance is the earliest standard organization, the main participants are Samsung, Ti and other large companies, as well as a series of industry alliances, which are also the most popular standards in the market. But the biggest problem of WPC standard is that its technology requires users to aim the terminal at the wireless charging base, which is also the technical barrier of WPC alliance at present. With Apple's formal accession to the WPC alliance, it is bound to bring new sparks to the WPC standard. With Apple's influence, more enterprises will join the WPC alliance and be familiar with wireless charging. At the same time, apple is expected to participate in the revision and improvement of the latest WPC standard. This WPC alliance is of great significance. In the future, the WPC alliance is expected to have more and more influence. With the improvement of technology, the Qi standard of WPC alliance will become the mainstream standard of wireless charging in the future.

The airfuel alliance, led by Qualcomm, acquired PMA at an early stage and then merged with its own a4wp. The 6.78mhz wireless charging technology used by the alliance pursues 2D, 2.5D free wireless charging experience, and is expected to provide high degree of freedom and high flexibility charging experience in the future. However, the current technology is not mature, the main difficulty lies in the traditional power electronic equipment working under 3MHz. In recent two years, this technology will not be mature application.

Another kind of microwave charging technology is currently being studied by some independent small companies, such as ubeam and dialog in the United States. The technology can realize a wireless charging experience full of freedom at the 3D level. This method can be implemented by many technologies, such as 2.4GHz microwave band, or even acoustic frequency band. However, with the increase of charging power, microwave radiation also increases. The damage of electromagnetic radiation to human body is also an important measure of the quality of wireless charging technology. There will be no mature technical scheme for microwave technology in the short term.

Wang Li, chief analyst of Soochow electronics, pointed out that the wireless charging market is facing huge growth space. "At present, the price of the receiver module is about US $3-4, and the annual shipment of smart phones is 2 billion. According to the third party's prediction that the penetration rate of wireless charging in mobile phones will increase to 50% in 2020, the wireless charging mobile phone receiver will have a market of 3-4 billion US dollars."

Once the wireless charging market breaks out, it will not only affect the mobile phone field, but also the demand for wireless charging in smart home, smart car and other fields. By 2020, the overall scale of wireless charging is expected to reach more than 10 billion US dollars.

Wireless charging is about to enter the tuyere, the domestic industry chain upstream and downstream enterprises will undoubtedly become the biggest beneficiary. The most important thing is that, compared with other industries, it dares to compete with international giants for the right of technological discourse, which not only marks the maturity of China's semiconductor industry, but also a strong guarantee for the internationalization of wireless charging industry in the future.

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