With the continuous improvement of technology, the electrification and intelligence of automobiles are driving the development of the semiconductor industry. Due to the widespread application of semiconductors in various automotive subsystems, automotive semiconductors have become direct beneficiaries of automotive electrification and intelligence.

The growth rate of the global semiconductor industry is developing, with the automotive electronics industry leading the way

In the past few years, the growth of the global semiconductor industry has mainly relied on the demand for electronic devices such as smartphones, as well as the expansion of technology applications such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing. According to data, it is expected that the growth trend of the global semiconductor industry is expected to continue into the next decade. The main market driving forces include the continuous strengthening of existing products, the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence products and 5G networks, and the rapid growth of the automotive and industrial electronics industries. The majority of revenue in the semiconductor industry will come from data processing electronics (such as storage and cloud computing) and communication electronics (such as wireless communication). Automotive electronics and industrial electronics will become the two fastest-growing fields in the semiconductor industry.

More and more automotive electronics are being used in automotive applications

The proportion of costs has been increasing year by year

The value proportion of automotive electronics varies among different vehicle models, and the cost proportion of new energy vehicle electronics is much higher than that of traditional cars. In the traditional cost proportion of automobiles, the proportion of automotive electronic devices is only about 15%. However, with the advancement of technology, automotive electronics has evolved from early wireless devices and electronic ignition devices to various mechatronic integrated devices such as safety control systems and power control systems. The proportion of electronic products used in the entire vehicle continues to increase. With the development of pure electric vehicles, more advanced electronic control management systems have been added in the kinetic energy control and conversion parts. Especially in recent years, the automotive industry is continuously developing towards intelligence, safety, environmental protection, and comfort. As the hardware foundation of these major mainlines, automotive electronics has achieved sustained and rapid development in recent years, and the market growth rate of the industry has remained above 10%, greatly increasing the proportion of automotive electronic systems. At present, the cost of electronic systems accounts for 65% of the cost of automobiles.

Detailed diagram of the proportion of automotive electronics in automotive costs

With new energy vehicles being included in the seven strategic emerging industries that the country is accelerating its cultivation and development, it is expected that the growth potential of the automotive electronics industry will be further unleashed. Obviously, automotive electronics has become a new growth point in the electronic manufacturing industry. China, as the world's largest producer and consumer of automobiles, was approximately 461.7 billion yuan in 2016. China Industry Research Report Network predicts that the domestic automotive electronics market capacity is expected to grow to over 750 billion yuan by 2023. According to the analysis of China Industry Research Report Network, with the continuous development and growth of the domestic automotive industry, it is imperative to establish a self owned automotive electronics industry chain, which also brings new historical development opportunities to high-quality domestic electronic enterprises.

Therefore, as the market share of new energy vehicles continues to increase, the automotive electronics industry has once again experienced explosive growth.

Scale and Forecast of China's Automotive Electronics Market from 2018 to 2023 (Unit: 100 million yuan)

Automotive resistors: the arrival of the new energy era

The market opportunities for automotive resistors are emerging

Resistors are known as the "steel and cement" of the electronic age. They are mainly used to control voltage and current, playing roles such as voltage reduction, voltage division, current limiting, isolation, filtering (in conjunction with capacitors), matching, and signal amplitude adjustment. They are essential components for various types of electronics. It is also the main product category of automotive electronics, especially with the development of the new energy vehicle market, the demand for automotive products is gradually beginning to manifest, and the trend is slowly forming. However, the automotive market has not yet reached a peak. Currently, in addition to the widespread application of resistors in navigation devices, instrument panels, and car headlights, from the specific location of application, automotive instruments, battery systems, navigation devices, electric seats, door frames, etc. cannot do without capacitors and resistors. The largest part of the usage is mainly reflected in the "three electricity" system - motor, electronic control, and battery. Compared to other application fields, the revenue from new energy vehicles will account for an increasing proportion of the total revenue of resistors; Therefore, in the future market, the demand for the application of SMT resistors in the field of new energy vehicles will be increasing

In the battery protection system of new energy vehicles, most customers use passive balancing technology to consume excess electrical energy in the battery through passive components. Due to the uneven charging and discharging of each battery, a large amount of resistance is used for battery balancing to protect the battery's lifespan and performance. A battery protection system (BMS) will use 48-160pcs of resistance, which is not required in traditional cars. This is the reason why the demand for resistors in new energy vehicles is growing so rapidly.

The electrification of automobiles has given rise to the demand for SMT resistors, including hybrid electric (HEV) vehicles, pure electric vehicles (EV), and some pure electric vehicles, including 48V pure electric vehicles, as well as ISS (Intelligent Start/Stop) vehicles. ISS vehicles can start and stop automatically, for example, in dangerous situations, they can stop automatically and belong to a predecessor product of unmanned/fully automated vehicles in the future. These cars will use batteries and various motors, so the demand for SMD resistors will be increasing.

Distribution diagram of vehicle resistance usage

High barrier market with obvious advantages in leading industry development

Compared to the consumer market, the automotive market also has much higher technical requirements for resistors, from waterproofing, dust-proof, anti oxidation to shock resistance during vehicle operation, all of which must meet high requirements. In addition, there are relatively high requirements for "antioxidant and anti vulcanization" technology, as well as challenges from extreme temperatures. Therefore, this is a field with strong market potential, but at the same time, there are also high barriers to market entry. For example, in the parts related to battery/motor circuits, the demand for low resistance resistors for current detection will increase; With the increase of ECU (electronic control unit), research on small/high reliability components is accelerating, such as the ECU part of new energy vehicles, which may use one to two hundred anti vulcanization resistors in the future.

AEC-Q200 level for automotive resistance

Automotive semiconductor suppliers play a crucial role in the automotive industry supply chain. In the traditional automotive industry ecosystem, semiconductor suppliers sell their products to first tier electronic system suppliers, who integrate technology into modules and hand them over to vehicle manufacturers for assembly. Therefore, the automotive resistor industry has a high technical threshold, which is manifested as follows:

① Long certification cycle and high market share of leading enterprises

Automobiles involve life safety, so the level of requirements for automotive parts is correspondingly increased. The parts provided to car manufacturers have strict testing requirements, long testing cycles, and multiple testing items. It takes a long period of time and requires a lot of investment to be certified by car manufacturers. Therefore, as long as the certification is completed, car manufacturers generally do not easily change brands, making it difficult for new suppliers to enter.

② The automotive resistor industry has significant barriers and high requirements for research and development level and production process technology

At present, only a few domestic brands such as Fujie Resistance have a very small market share, with Europe, America, and Japan accounting for over 80%; Multinational company products occupy the mid to high end market; Firstly, intelligent manufacturing equipment for automotive electronics requires full automation of production lines in production, testing, packaging, and other processes, emphasizing the integration of production process technology, hardware, software, and application technology. Secondly, the production process of automotive electronics is complex, with multiple types of raw materials, high requirements for assembly compatibility and quality. Leading automotive electronics manufacturers require intelligent manufacturing equipment for automotive electronics to have information and intelligent functions, including data collection and transmission, analysis and application, quality traceability, incoming material and consumable management, and full process inspection. Automotive electronics manufacturers have higher requirements for product quality, and the entry threshold for the automotive electronic intelligent manufacturing industry is relatively high. At the same time, the planning and stability of equipment system research and development, manufacturing, and upgrading are high. Therefore, the leading enterprises in the automotive electronics industry have a high market share, obvious leading effects, and high market concentration. The top three companies in the industry occupy the main market share, and the leading enterprises have a significant advantage.

At present, the main suppliers and market share of automotive electronic segmented products

Facing market opportunities and challenges

Fujie Electronics Innovation Layout, Opening up Market Blue Ocean

Faced with the rapidly growing opportunities in the automotive resistor market, Anhui Fujie Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fujie Electronics"), one of the two major business units under the Anhui Fuxin brand, as a large-scale private SMT resistor manufacturer in China, has innovatively and scientifically laid out its production line based on the technical application characteristics of automotive resistor products, leveraging its advantages of having a top international and domestic level technical team and combining its nearly 20 years of research and development, design, and production experience in the resistor market. The company has made reasonable product planning according to the technical application characteristics of automotive resistor products; It has further improved its capabilities to become a manufacturing and technical service provider in the field of automotive resistors, and enhanced its own large-scale production and supply capacity for independent brands in the field of automotive resistors.

Planning and Technical Application Characteristics of Fujie Car Resistor Product Series

While conducting product planning, Fujie Electronics is accelerating technology research and resource integration, investing heavily in advanced instruments and equipment such as American and Japanese, and building a first-class laboratory for automotive design products. It is fully capable of launching a series of automotive design resistor products for automotive electronics in response to the requirements of automotive design standards such as AEC-Q200. At the same time, both Fuxin Semiconductor and Fujie Electronics have successfully obtained the IATF16949:2016 quality management system certification, which not only signifies that Anhui Fuxin's products have officially obtained a ticket to enter the automotive supply chain, but also indicates that Anhui Fuxin can better explore the international automotive parts market and enhance its core competitiveness in future development.

The automotive regulations have high technical requirements for resistors, and there are also more stringent requirements in the manufacturing process. Therefore, Fujie Company has opened a more advanced fully automatic packaging production line in 2021 to prepare production functions for the huge demand in the automotive resistor market.

In addition, Fujie Electronics further strengthens the absorption and cultivation of professional and technical talents, and has attracted a large number of experienced and highly educated technical talents from well-known universities and enterprises both domestically and internationally, providing core competitiveness for the development of the enterprise.

According to the latest understanding, Fujie Electronics plans to launch a car specification resistor that not only has a high cost performance ratio and is aimed at the application fields of comfort and entertainment systems in automobiles, but also develops products for high-end application fields such as automotive power systems, with high corrosion resistance and high reliability performance. In the early stages of research and development, Fujie Electronics fully considered the harsh environmental factors such as high temperature, high humidity, high vibration, and accumulation of pollutants such as dust in automotive electronic applications. It planned to adopt an optimized product structure design scheme and high corrosion resistant materials, and fully implement the quality management system of the automotive industry to ensure the reliability of this product. 

With the advent of the era of new energy and intelligent vehicles, future automotive electronic systems will inevitably develop towards electrification, intelligence, and networking. For Fujie Electronics, which has already laid out its business in this area in advance, it will also further innovate its layout, consolidate its industry position, open up a blue ocean in the market, and further advance towards the Fujie brand's Chinese chip and world dream.