Yinte Industry Express: Behind the shortage and price increase of crystal oscillators, the process of domestic substitution is accelerating
2020-08-03
Yinte Electronics Industry Express
Crystal oscillator products with high temperature compensation, thermal sensitivity, and technological content may enter a new round of price increase cycle. It has only been over three months since the last news of crystal oscillator price increase appeared. At that time, due to the impact of upstream raw material price increases, some crystal oscillator products increased in price by 10% -20%. Under the impact of the epidemic, leading global crystal oscillator manufacturers have temporarily stopped production, and the new production capacity of the domestic crystal oscillator market has also been halved, focusing on reducing inventory.
Nowadays, the epidemic is still ravaging the world, and the supply system of international giants has not fully recovered, especially in high-end crystal oscillator regions such as Japanese and American, where the import of some high-end crystal oscillator products is restricted. In the context of increasing demand and depleted inventory, new demand for price increases has also emerged.
Some products are out of stock and have increased prices
As one of the passive electronic components, crystal oscillators have long been dominated by Japanese established manufacturers such as KDS and NDK, with a market share of over 60%. Among them, the Japanese 32.768K surface mount crystal oscillator has been out of stock for a long time due to its highest usage.
At present, the product series with increased price of crystal oscillators mainly include 32.768K, temperature compensated crystal oscillators, and series with higher technical content. ”Cai Qinhong, General Manager of Yangxing Technology, expressed to Jiwei Network.
Looking into the reasons, multiple factors are also interrelated. The most significant impact is the global pandemic, which has greatly affected overseas crystal oscillator manufacturers. The early production shutdowns have accelerated the pace of destocking in the entire market. However, the crystal oscillator products mentioned above, under the pressure of limited exports, have experienced an imbalance in supply and demand, which has accelerated the timing and pace of price increases.
On the contrary, based on the gradual improvement of domestic manufacturers in terms of technological level, production technology, automation degree, etc., the production capacity scale of mid to low end general-purpose crystal oscillator products is gradually expanding, which can still meet the demand of the domestic market. Overall, the supply and demand of crystal oscillator products are relatively balanced, and prices are trending towards stability. The price increase only affects some models, "Cai Qinhong said frankly.
In addition to the price increase situation, the current delivery time of the entire crystal oscillator market is still not optimistic. At present, we are in a state of distribution, and the delivery time has improved compared to the first quarter, but we are still in a relatively short supply state. It is expected that this situation will not ease until the end of this year or the first half of next year, "Cai Qinhong added.
It is worth noting that with the gradual outbreak of market demand for 5G, TWS earphones, and Wi Fi 6, domestic manufacturers have seen an increasing number of domestic substitutes emerge in the mid to low end consumer, industrial, or communication fields. Especially in the context of 5G applications, there will be a 60% -70% substitution space.
Accelerating domestic substitution under new demands
Since the beginning of this year, TWS earphones have been in a period of rapid growth, with high individual product prices and high industry profit margins, which are leveraging a market worth nearly billions. In TWS earphones, the market demand for small-sized, high-precision, low-power thermal crystal oscillators such as 2520 and 2016 is also on the rise.
In addition, high-tech fields such as 5G base stations, automotive electronics, and the Internet of Things have a high demand for the two sizes of 2520 temperature compensated crystal oscillators and thermal sensitive crystals. As a result, orders for this model of product have increased, gradually showing a trend of both quantity and price rising.
According to CS&A's forecast, the global output value of frequency components in 2019 will be 3.2-3.4 billion US dollars, with an annual sales volume of 19-21 billion frequency components. In 2020, 5G drove a new round of replacement demand, and the penetration rate of smart cars gradually increased. In addition, the explosive growth of emerging markets such as TWS earphones led to a rebound in the popularity of quartz crystal oscillators.
Based on the impact of the current epidemic and the significant increase in demand in some fields in the domestic market, domestic crystal oscillator manufacturers have also been given certain opportunities. The domestic substitution space for temperature compensated crystal oscillators and thermosensitive crystal oscillators has increased, and domestic crystal oscillator manufacturers are also focusing on these two technologies to further narrow the gap with Japanese and Taiwanese enterprises, "said a crystal oscillator manufacturer to Jiwei Network.
According to Jiwei Network, among the representative manufacturers of domestic crystal oscillators, Huilun Crystal introduced its thermosensitive crystal product line as early as 2016, with a production capacity of 10KK/M; In 2018, its TCXO/VCTCXO products passed MTK certification. On this basis, in April of this year, Huilun Crystal's 1612 size crystal oscillator product passed the certification and licensing of Juxin Technology, further establishing its strength in the TWS headphone market.
At the same time, in the TWS earphone field, Taijing Technology has entered the product solutions of Hengxuan and Luoda, and raised over 600 million yuan through private placement for projects such as "Industrialization of Micro Crystal Resonators Based on MEMS Technology" and "Research and Industrialization of Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillators (TCXOs)", expanding its competitiveness in the field of temperature compensated crystal oscillators and strengthening its lithography technology.
In addition, in recent years, the effective application of MEMS technology has provided technical reference and inspiration for the processing of quartz crystals, and has become a key direction for domestic crystal oscillator manufacturers to break through in technology. It has advantages in reducing crystal oscillator volume, improving stability, and promoting the development of crystal oscillator products towards miniaturization and high precision. At present, domestic crystal oscillator manufacturers such as Taijing Technology and Yangxing Technology have gradually broken through in the field of MEMS technology, and their production capacity is gradually increasing.
Source: China Electronic Components Industry Association
Shanghai Yinte specializes in producing TVS transient diodes (SM8S33A), ESD electrostatic protection components, and other circuit protection components


New organic LED breaks through data speed
2020-07-28
Yin Te Electronics: Industry Push
Researchers are using a new type of organic LED to break through the limits of data speed.
The domain provides' practically 'unlimited bandwidth (>400 THz). Among these systems, visible light communication (VLC) is attractive because it has the potential to utilize light-emitting devices that have been widely used in commercial applications ranging from lighting systems to mobile phones and television displays.
In the fastest VLC link reported so far, the light emitter consists of a light emitting diode (LED) and a laser diode (LD), which use inorganic semiconductors (usually gallium nitride) as the emission medium and have high light output power and wide bandwidth. These characteristics make inorganic LEDs and LDs suitable for integration into dual-purpose lighting devices that can provide both white lighting and data transmission simultaneously. However, the use of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is an effective alternative, which has attracted great attention for VLC. People's interest in OLEDs used for communication is not only driven by their widespread use in display technology, but also by the same advantages of successful organic electronics technology. Importantly, organic semiconductors can be deposited over large areas inexpensively through thermal evaporation or spin coating, scraping, inkjet, or spray coating solutions. Large area organic semiconductor (OS) lighting devices have entered the market and are expected to become the next large-scale application of OS after OLED (AMOLED) displays.
Visible light communication (VLC) is a wireless technology that relies on light intensity modulation and may change the connectivity of the Internet of Things (IoT). However, the low penetration depth of visible light in non transparent media hinders VLC. One solution is to extend the operation to the "near (non) visible" near-infrared (NIR, 700-1000nm) region, extending the spectral range to the near-infrared (NIR, 700-1000nm) not only expands the bandwidth of the VLC link, but also paves the way for its integration into many applications that utilize NIR radiation. Near infrared emission devices are used in several different fields, including safety, biological detection, and photodynamic/photothermal therapy, both of which benefit from the semi transparency of biological tissues in this spectral window. In the case of wearable or implantable biosensors, NIR photons can be used to monitor human vital signs and communicate wirelessly with other devices.
Scientists have created new OLEDs processed with far red/near-infrared solutions. By integrating the device into a real-time VLC device, as shown in Figure 1a, an error free transmission speed of over 1Mb/s has been achieved. Successfully expanded bandwidth and achieved the fastest data speed ever for organic light-emitting diodes.
The new OLED has been described in the journal "Light Science and Applications", creating opportunities for new Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and wearable and implantable biosensor technologies.
This project is a collaboration between Newcastle University, University College London, London Centre for Nanotechnology, Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, Poland), and National Research Council Institute for Nanostructured Materials (CNR-ISMN, Bologna, Italy).
From the perspective of IoT applications, the data rate achieved by the team through this groundbreaking device is sufficient to support indoor point-to-point links.
The researchers emphasized the possibility of achieving this data rate without the need for computationally complex and power demanding equalizers. Due to the absence of toxic heavy metals in the active layer of organic light-emitting diodes, the new VLC device is expected to integrate portable, wearable, or implantable organic biosensors.


What is 5G and in what ways can we contribute to its development?
2020-04-10
5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems, abbreviated as 5G or 5G technology)
It is the latest generation of cellular mobile communication technology, which is an extension of 4G (LTE-A, WiMax), 3G (UMTS, LTE), and 2G (GSM) systems. The performance goals of 5G are high data rates, reduced latency, energy savings, cost reduction, increased system capacity, and large-scale device connectivity. The first phase of the 5G specification in Release 15 was designed to accommodate early commercial deployments. The second phase of Release 16 will be completed in April 2020 and submitted as a candidate for IMT-2020 technology to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The ITU IMT-2020 specification requires a speed of up to 20 Gbit/s, which can achieve wide channel bandwidth and large capacity MIMO
ITU is the International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is a United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technology affairs, allocating and managing global radio spectrum and satellite orbit resources, developing global telecommunications standards, providing telecommunications assistance to developing countries, and promoting global telecommunications development.

