Photography Archives - Page 24 of 249

Image Sensors World Go to the original article...

Link: http://news.10jqka.com.cn/20230825/c650064231.shtml

Translated using Google translate:

The content of the business review of the board of directors of Smartway in the 2023 semi-annual period is as follows:

　　1. Description of the company's industry and main business during the reporting period

　　(1) The industry to which the company belongs

　　The company's main business is the R&D, design and sales of high-performance CMOS image sensors, and its products are widely used in emerging fields such as security monitoring, machine vision, and intelligent vehicle electronics. According to the China Securities Regulatory Commission's "Guidelines for the Industry Classification of Listed Companies" (revised in 2012), the company belongs to the "computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry" in the "manufacturing industry", and the industry code is "C39". According to the national economic industry classification and code (GB/T4754-2017), the company's industry belongs to "integrated circuit design" in "software and information technology service industry". According to the "Strategic Emerging Industry Classification (2018)", the company's industry is "integrated circuit design". According to the "Shanghai Stock Exchange's Interim Regulations on Issuance and Listing Application and Recommendation of Enterprises on the Science and Technology Innovation Board", the company's industry belongs to the "semiconductor and integrated circuit" industry in the "new generation information technology field" stipulated in Article 4 (1).

　　(2) Industry development

　　(1) Global semiconductor and integrated circuit industry

　　The global semiconductor industry has a certain cycle, and the business cycle is closely related to factors such as the macro economy, downstream application demand, and its own production capacity and inventory. According to preliminary statistics from Gartner, a world-renowned market research institution, the total global semiconductor revenue in 2022 will be US$601.7 billion, an increase of 1.1% from US$595 billion in 2021. Some semiconductor end markets are starting to show weakness, especially those impacted by consumer spending. Rising inflation, taxes and interest rates, as well as higher energy and fuel costs, are putting pressure on consumers' disposable income. This is affecting spending on electronics such as PCs and smartphones. Semiconductor Intelligence also predicts that the continued strong automotive market and Internet of Things (IoT) growth will help the semiconductor market recover. The risk of a global recession in 2023 is decreasing. It is initially expected that the semiconductor market will continue to recover in 2024, the end market will grow moderately, and the growth rate of the semiconductor market will be 5% to 10%.

　　(2) my country's semiconductor and integrated circuit industry

　　In the past 20 years, information technology has been the main driving force for the rapid economic growth of China and the world. Since the beginning of the new century, China's GDP growth has shown a strong correlation with the integrated circuit industry, and this correlation has become more and more obvious after entering the second decade of the new century. In recent years, China's semiconductor and integrated circuit industry has experienced rapid development, industry demand has expanded rapidly, and policy support has continued to be favorable. According to the data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association, from 2017 to 2021, the sales of China's integrated circuit industry showed an upward trend year by year, and the growth rate remained at a relatively high level. 2021 is the first year of China's "14th Five-Year Plan". Driven by the good performance of the domestic macro economy, the domestic integrated circuit industry continues to maintain a rapid and steady growth trend. In 2021, the sales of China's integrated circuit industry will exceed one trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 1,045.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%. In the first half of 2022, the sales of China's integrated circuit industry reached 476.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.1%, and its market size is expected to reach 1,442.5 billion yuan in 2023.

　　According to the forecast of IC Insights, the compound annual growth rate of China's integrated circuit market from 2020 to 2025 will be 9.2%, and the proportion of domestic chips in China is expected to increase from 15.9% in 2020 to 19.4% in 2025.

　　(3) CMOS image sensor market pattern and development trend

　　Thanks to the widespread popularity of multi-camera mobile phones and the rapid development of security monitoring, smart car cameras and machine vision, the overall shipments and sales of CMOS image sensors have continued to expand. According to statistics from Frost & Sullivan, from 2016 to 2020, global CMOS image sensor shipments have grown rapidly from 4.14 billion to 7.72 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.9%. In 2022, affected by the sluggish terminal demand, according to Omida's forecast analysis, the global CMOS image sensor market may decline to US$18.6 billion after maintaining double-digit growth for six consecutive years, a year-on-year decline of nearly 7% from US$20.1 billion in 2021 . But at the same time, the agency also predicts that the global CMOS image sensor market will resume growth in 2023, and the market size will increase to US$19.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and the growth momentum is expected to continue until 2026, when the market size will increase to $26.9 billion. Currently, CMOS image sensors are mainly used in cameras of mobile phones. Demand has also increased in recent years for other applications such as machine vision, autonomous driving, and augmented reality.

　　(3) Company business model

　　The company's business model belongs to the Fabless model. The company focuses on the research and development, design and sales of CMOS image sensors, and entrusts the main production links such as wafer production and packaging to external companies. However, considering the convenience of final product debugging and quality control , The company built its own test factory to complete most of the work of the final test (FT test), and the company does not have a huge investment in wafer production lines and packaging plants. The company has an independent and complete R&D, procurement, production and sales system, and independently conducts business activities according to its own situation, market rules and operating mechanism.

　　2. Core technology and R&D progress

　　1. Core technology and its advanced nature and changes during the reporting period

　　The company's main core technologies are all applied to the design and production of CMOS image sensors, and the source of technology is all independent research and development.

　　2. Research and development achievements obtained during the reporting period

　　During the reporting period, the company applied for 89 new intellectual property projects (including 49 invention patents), and a total of 53 intellectual property projects were authorized (including 5 invention patents). As of June 30, 2023, the company has accumulatively obtained 94 overseas patent authorizations and 1 utility model patent, and has obtained 89 domestic invention patent authorizations and 202 utility model patents.

　　3. R&D investment table

　　Reasons for major changes in total R&D investment compared with the previous year

　　From January to June 2023, the total investment in research and development was 140.8188 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.42%, mainly because the company invested more manpower and material resources in order to consolidate the technological leadership of existing products and develop new technologies and products.

　　4. Current research projects

　　*The discrepancy between the total amount of accumulated investment and the sum of the sub-item values is caused by rounding.

　　5. R&D personnel

　　6. Other instructions

2. Discussion and analysis of business conditions

　　In the first half of 2023, the company achieved a total operating income of 1,072,712,100 yuan, an increase of 6.25% over the same period of the previous year, of which the combined revenue of the smart security industry was 649,231,000 yuan, a decrease of 16.41% over the same period of the previous year, accounting for 60.52% of the main revenue ; Consumer electronics revenue was 315.8608 million yuan, an increase of 89.15% over the same period of the previous year, accounting for 29.45% of the main revenue; automotive electronics revenue was 107.6204 million yuan, an increase of 63.08% over the same period of the previous year, accounting for 10.03% of the main revenue .

　　During the reporting period, due to the impact of multiple factors such as the macro environment, the recovery of market demand was not as good as expected, resulting in pressure on the sales prices of some of the company's products, and the revenue scale of the smart security business declined compared with the same period last year. However, relying on efficient R&D efficiency and market acumen, the company's consumer electronics and automotive electronics business revenue has achieved substantial growth compared with the same period last year. The goal of the tripartite business pattern of "smart security + consumer electronics + automotive electronics" provides strong support.

　　1. In the field of smart security, the company continued to make efforts in the high-end field, creating a combination of cutting-edge security products such as the Pro Series full-performance upgrade series, the AI Series high-end imaging series, and the SL Series super star-level series. In recent years, the growth rate of the intelligent security industry has been steady, the vertical application fields are flourishing, and the diversified demands are constantly being released. The company is committed to exploring more potential needs of security customers, using high-performance technical products to accurately reach customers' actual applications. In the first quarter of this year, the company launched SC880SL, a new 4K super star-level image sensor with a large target area. It is the company's first 1/1.2" 8MP image sensor product. Achieve excellent night vision imaging effects. In addition, the excellent high-temperature imaging quality brought about by process upgrading and optimization also provides SC880SL with stronger market core competitiveness, striving to empower the development of smart security applications with excellent high-performance imaging performance.

　　For a long time, machine vision, as an important image information capture window, has played an important role in the automation and intelligent upgrading of various industries. At present, machine vision has been widely used in various application fields, including industrial manufacturing and logistics represented by intelligent manufacturing, intelligent screening and intelligent logistics code reading, as well as drones, sweeping robots and AR/VR. represent emerging application areas. The company has released a total of 8 professional-grade machine vision application CIS products, which can be widely used in various industrial inspection scenarios and industrial machine vision applications such as industrial code readers, AGV navigation systems, and 3D scanners. In the future, the company will further deploy high-speed industrial chip products in an all-round way, empower customer applications with high-performance imaging quality, and provide support for industrial intelligent upgrades.

　　In the future, with the continuous release of national economic policies, the gradual recovery of customer demand, the continuous reduction of downstream inventory levels and the continuous increase in the process of import substitution of high-end products, the prosperity of the smart security industry is expected to continue to pick up. The market size of the company in the smart security industry is expected to improve further.

　　2. In the field of automotive electronics, the company always adheres to safety as the cornerstone, establishes a high-quality R&D control system at the beginning of product design, and aligns with international standards, and regards vehicle safety as a key factor in the field of production and R&D. The company has passed the three major industry standard system certifications of IATF16949, AEC-Q100 and IS26262:2018 automotive functional safety process ASIL D, and has established a complete car-level chip R&D and quality management system to ensure the reliability of the entire life cycle of automotive CIS products. Escort." The company's vehicle-mounted CIS products have been mass-produced by customers such as BYD ( 002594 ) , FAW, SAIC, Dongfeng Nissan, Great Wall, Ssangyong, Kaiwo, Leapao, and Lantu.

　　According to the monitoring data of Gaogong Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, a third-party research institution, the domestic automotive surround view market has huge development potential. In 2022, the adoption rate of front-mounted panoramic view of passenger cars in the Chinese market (excluding imports and exports) has reached 30.87%, and in 2021 it will be 22.5%. . It can be seen from this that the front-loading rate of panoramic surround view has been rapidly increasing in recent years, which will also bring more demand for image sensors, which will undoubtedly bring huge business opportunities to the company.

　　Facing the field of autonomous driving, the company released the SC850AT, a new 8-megapixel car-grade image sensor by the end of 2022. This product is developed based on the ASIL D functional safety process and complies with AEC-Q100Grade2 and functional safety ISO26262ASIL B level requirements. It fully meets the high safety and high reliability requirements of the smart car industry and helps high-end ADAS/AD systems move towards a higher level. This product is currently in the sample testing phase.

　　In the future, the company will continue to focus on the three major application scenarios of in-vehicle imaging, perception and in-cabin, continuously launch and further enrich the product matrix of ATSeries series, optimize and improve product performance and user experience, and promote the development of intelligent vehicles and the penetration of intelligent driving technology and popularity to increase market share and brand influence.

　　3. In the field of consumer electronics, through the company's continuous research and development and innovation, the company's smart phone CIS products cover the mainstream needs of the current mobile phone market, and the product resolutions range from 800,000 pixels to 50 million pixels. According to Counterpoint data, smartphones are the largest downstream application field of CIS (accounting for more than 70%). Throughout the market, consumers of high-end smartphones have higher and higher requirements for camera shooting performance. Under this trend, CIS, as the core imaging device, has become an important field for breaking the performance of mobile phone cameras. At present, 50 million pixels is the mainstream configuration of the main camera of flagship mobile phones, and it is expected to have a stable life cycle for a long time in the future, which also reflects the market's pursuit and demand for high-pixel smartphones to take pictures.

　　For the 50-megapixel product track, the company has launched two high-end CIS products, SC550XS and SC520XS, which can meet the needs of flagship smartphone main and front cameras, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras in terms of performance. The SC550XS, which focuses on the high-end flagship main camera market, has been mass-produced and shipped during the reporting period, and another high-end product, the SC520XS, has also entered the stage of small-scale mass production. In the future, the company will launch more new smartphone application products to empower smartphone imaging systems with excellent imaging quality.

　　During the reporting period, the company won many awards covering IC design, image sensors, electronic components, Internet of Things companies and other fields, fully demonstrating the company's leading edge in technology and R&D strength, and representing all sectors of society's support for the company's R&D High recognition of strength. During the reporting period, the company won the following awards: "2023 China IC Design Achievement Award - Top Ten Chinese IC Design Companies" selected by the world's leading media organization ASPENCORE, and won the "2023 China IC Design Achievement Award - Best Image Sensor of the Year" ; "2022 Excellent Domestic Brand Enterprise in Electronic Components Industry" and "2022 Top 100 Chinese Internet of Things Enterprises" selected by Huaqiang Electronics Network; "2023 China International Social Public Security Products Expo-Innovative Product Excellence Award" issued by China Security Association wait.

　　Looking forward to the future, the company will adhere to the innovation-driven development concept, continue to improve the company's research and development capabilities, and optimize products and services. We will be customer-oriented, meet customer needs with better products and services, and promote the company's continuous development in various business fields.

3. Risk factors

　　(1) Core Competitiveness Risk

　　1. Risk of technology iteration

　　The product technology iteration speed of the integrated circuit design industry is fast, and the replacement of CMOS image sensors and new application scenarios emerge in endlessly. Falling interest rates and poorer customer experience. On the other hand, there are certain uncertainties in the development direction of integrated circuit products. Design companies must maintain a high sensitivity to the iterative trend of mainstream technologies and the market space of scenario applications in order to grasp the general direction of technological development in a timely manner. If the company cannot adapt to the latest trend of technological development and adjust its strategy in a timely manner, it will cause a huge waste of labor costs, capital costs and time costs, and at the same time cause the company to lose key opportunities for development.

　　2. Risk of R&D failure

　　The company's main business is the research and development, design and sales of high-performance CMOS image sensor chips. The development of its products is characterized by high technical content, long research and development cycle, and large initial investment. At present, in order to adapt to the development of the industry and keep up with the development trend of the industry's mainstream technology, the company continues to invest a lot of funds and personnel in the research and development of new technologies and new products. However, if the company fails to make correct judgments on the direction of R&D, fails to make breakthroughs in key technologies during the R&D process, fails to meet expectations in product performance indicators, or develops products that cannot meet market demand, the company will face the risk of R&D failure, resulting in the failure of early R&D. It is difficult to recover the investment, which will adversely affect the company's subsequent development and market competitiveness.

　　3. Risk of core technology leakage

　　The integrated circuit design industry is characterized by high technology intensity. The company has accumulated a large number of core technologies through long-term development, forming the company's own core competitiveness. The company has formed a series of unique core technologies in the fields of pixel design and circuit design, and continues to develop new technologies and apply for intellectual property rights. In the future, if the company's core technology is leaked due to reasons such as poor storage of core technology information or the loss of core technology talents, and the core technology is copied and utilized by competitors, it will have an adverse impact on the company's core competitiveness.

　　4. The risk of core technology talent loss

　　The integrated circuit design industry is a typical technology-intensive industry, and its reliance on R&D personnel, especially core technical personnel, is much higher than other industries. The company has formed a mature and innovative core R&D team in the process of development. However, with the intensification of industry competition, the competition for outstanding talents has become more intense. At the same time, the company must continue to introduce new talents to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Industry technology development trend. If the company fails to strengthen the incentives for existing core technical talents and attract new talents, it will directly affect the company's technological innovation capabilities and product research and development capabilities.

　　(2) Operation risk

　　1. Business model risk

　　As an integrated circuit design company, the company adopts the Fabless business model and focuses on chip R&D, design, and sales. The production process is completed in foundries such as wafer factories and packaging factories. The degree of coordination is high. The company has established long-term good cooperative relations with major suppliers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics, Hefei Jinghe, Jingfang Technology ( 603005 ), Huatian Technology ( 002185 ), and Keyyang Semiconductor. However, due to the fact that the company cannot independently complete wafer production And packaging process, if the price of wafer and packaging purchases rises sharply, or cannot form sufficient production capacity guarantee for the company, it will directly affect the company's profitability, sales scale, shipment progress and supply guarantee to customers.

　　2. The high degree of supplier concentration and the risk of periodic fluctuations in capacity utilization

　　As an integrated circuit design company, the company's main production processes such as wafer manufacturing and packaging need to be completed in foundries. At the same time, due to the high threshold for wafer manufacturing and packaging in the integrated circuit industry, wafers that meet the company's technology and production requirements worldwide Manufacturing and packaging suppliers are limited. During the reporting period, global wafer and packaging and testing production capacity generally entered a relatively tight cycle. If the price of wafers and packaging rises sharply, or the company’s product production is affected due to shortage of wafer supply and insufficient packaging production capacity, it will have a negative impact on the company. The profitability of the company and the stability of product supply are adversely affected.

　　3. The risk of high customer concentration

　　The company adopts a sales model combining direct sales and distribution. Due to the large market demand for the company's products, the company's management of customers is relatively strict. Direct sales customers generally choose well-known terminal brand customers in the industry, while other terminal customers supply and service through well-known dealers in the industry. This strategy will make the company's customer concentration ratio relatively high.

　　Due to the high concentration of customers, if a customer with a high proportion of sales has fluctuations in cooperation with the company due to risks such as geopolitics, self-management, cooperation disputes, and tight production capacity, and the company needs a certain period of time to expand new customers, it may As a result, the company's sales scale has passively declined, and the sales payment cannot be guaranteed, which will have an adverse impact on the company's performance in the short term.

　　4. The risk that the speed of product application expansion is not as fast as expected

　　The company continues to expand product application areas according to market demand and its own technical characteristics, helping the company's continued growth in performance. During the reporting period, the company has gradually expanded from smart security to automotive electronics, consumer electronics and other fields. However, if the company's business expansion in new application areas is slower than expected, or the progress of related technology research and development is slower than expected, it may have an adverse impact on the company's operating performance growth.

　　5. The risk of not being able to maintain high-speed growth in the future

　　Affected by the rapid development of downstream industries such as 5G, smart cities, artificial intelligence, and automobiles in recent years, the demand for CMOS image sensor chips in various fields is very strong. The operating performance shows a high growth rate: However, the company's operating performance is greatly affected by the fluctuations of the upstream production capacity supply side and the downstream terminal demand side. Certainty, thereby bringing fluctuations to its income and profitability, and there may be a risk that it will not be able to maintain high-speed growth in the future.

Huawei image sensor fab?

Canon announces successful resolution of toner cartridge patent infringement lawsuits against Print-Rite in U.S. and Germany

Tower and TriEye collaboration leads to CMOS SWIR sensor

Smartsens releases business data