2022 Technology Industry Pulse - Continued

Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating world? We identified the trends that matter most. Continued from the last article of “2022 Technology Industry Pulse”, there are some more to mention.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was released for the first time, and the frozen version of Release 17 will be released in 2022. For the first time, non-terrestrial (NTN; Non-terrestrial Network) communication will be included as part of the 3GPP standard. The communications industry is a very important milestone. Previously, mobile communication and satellite communication were two independent development industries, so the upper, middle and lower reaches of the two industries were different. However, after 3GPP was incorporated into NTN, the two industry chains not only have more opportunities for interaction and cooperation, and it is expected to create a new industrial pattern. With the active deployment of low-orbit satellites, SpaceX in the United States has the largest number of applications for launch. Other major satellite operators include Amazon in the United States, OneWeb in the United Kingdom, and Telesat in Canada. More than 50%; low-orbit satellite communication emphasizes that signal coverage is not limited by terrain, such as mountains, seas, deserts, etc., and can be complementary to mobile communication 5G, which is also the application direction of 3GPP Rel-17 to formulate NTN planning, expected in 2022 The output value of the global satellite market is expected to benefit from an increase.

The post-pandemic new normal continues to push up the demand for non-contact and digital transformation, so that the Internet of Things will focus on strengthening the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) in 2022. By combining 5G, edge computing, AI and other tools, it can be extracted valuable data from massive data and analyzed to achieve the effect of intelligent autonomous prediction. In the current CPS instance, digital twins are used in key vertical fields such as smart manufacturing and smart cities. The former can simulate design, testing and production processes, and the latter can monitor key assets and assist in decision-making. Under the trend that the real environment is becoming more complex and the interaction between more fields and devices needs to be considered, it will promote the expansion of the deployment scope of digital twins. It is expected to build a comprehensive virtual space - metaverse as the development framework, in order to mirror the physical world more intelligently, completely, instantly and safely, and use the smart factory as the first field; this will also drive the vision of the sensor layer, acoustics, environmental information collection, platform-level AI accurate analysis of computing power, and technological innovations such as blockchain to ensure data credibility.

The epidemic has changed people's life and work situations, accelerated the willingness of enterprises to invest in digital transformation, and tried to introduce new technologies. As a result, the adoption rate of new AR/VR applications such as virtual meetings, AR remote collaboration, and simulation design has also increased. On the other hand, in addition to game applications, various remote interactive functions brought by virtual communities will also become important applications for manufacturers to develop the AR/VR market. Therefore, under the circumstance that the hardware adopts a low-price strategy and the acceptance of application scenarios increases, the AR/VR market will expand significantly in 2022, which will prompt the market to pursue more realistic AR/VR effects. For example, using software tools to create more realistic application services, introducing AI computing to assist, or equipping more types of sensors to provide more real data into virtual reactions, such as eye tracking functions are the options for future consumer products from manufacturers such as Oculus, Sony. In addition, some haptic feedback effects can even be provided on hardware such as controllers or wearable devices to improve the user's sense of immersion.

Autonomous driving technology will be implemented in a way that is close to life. It is expected that the unmanned automatic parking (AVP) function of SAE Leve4 will become an important option for high-end vehicles to be equipped with automatic driving function in 2022, and relevant international standards are also in formulation, the development of this function is positively helpful. However, this function will vary depending on the equipment of the vehicle, resulting in scene restrictions such as fixed/unfixed routes, private/public parking spaces, etc. The conditions of the parking lot will also affect the availability of AVP, including the completeness of signs and the networking environment. When this function is executed, the distance between people and vehicles is related to local regulations. Since the technical routes of car manufacturers are different, the computing parts can be divided into the computing on the car side and the generation of parking routes by cloud computing. However, cloud computing requires a good networking environment to execute. Therefore, in terms of use, on-board computing will cover more usage scenarios, or there will be solutions for both. Other applications such as V2X and high-precision maps will also affect the application scope of automatic parking, and it is expected that there are still many AVP solutions in progress at the same time.

Under the trend that countries will gradually ban the sale of fuel vehicles from 2025 to 2050, it will accelerate the global sales of electric vehicles and increase the market share of SiC and GaN components and modules. In addition, energy conversion needs and terminal applications such as 5G communications are growing rapidly, which drives the heat of the third-generation semiconductor market, which in turn drives the sales of SiC and Si substrates (Substrate) required for third-generation semiconductors. However, due to the relatively limited production and research and development of current substrates, the current stable supply of SiC and GaN wafers is still limited to 6 inches in size, making the production capacity of foundry and IDM factories in short supply for a long time.

In this regard, substrate suppliers such as Cree, II-VI and Qromis plan to expand production capacity and increase the area of SiC and GaN wafers to 8 inches in 2022, hoping to gradually alleviate the gap in the third-generation semiconductor market. On the other hand, foundry companies such as TSMC and World Advanced (VIS) are trying to cut into GaN on Si 8-inch wafer manufacturing, and IDM companies such as Infineon will release a new generation of Infineon Trench SiC device energy-saving architecture, while the communication industry Qorvo also proposed a new GaN MMIC Copper Flip Chip package structure for the defense field.