If the auto industry says anything, it is that the market can't change its core technology. Moreover, core technologies are often not available, as is the core components of smart cars. The product I want to talk about today is a 77 GHz millimeter wave radar that is highly monopolized by foreign companies. The 77GHZ millimeter wave radar is an indispensable key component in smart cars. It is a sensor device that can quickly sense the distance, speed, azimuth and other information of surrounding objects within the range of 0-300 meters in an all-weather scene.
It is understood that the core technology of this product is still in the hands of Bosch, Delphi, Denso, TRW, ConTI and other multinational giants, basically not sold to the country alone, if you want to buy, you can only buy a complete system, the price is of course not Philippines. In the 30 years of reform and opening up, in addition to the lessons of the market that cannot be exchanged for technology, there is still a truth: aiming at the foreign countries’ blockade of Chinese technology, adopting an import substitution strategy. As long as the technology is over and the products are almost the same, it will surely Make a pot full. Import substitution is not a substitute for anyone. If it is so easy, it will break through. Why do developed countries in Europe and America enjoy high welfare? For example, in the field of 77GHZ millimeter wave radar, the technical and overall difficulty has the following points:
1. A wealth of radar systems and millimeter wave RF design experience and capabilities are required. The talents in this field are mostly concentrated in the hands of the military and foreign manufacturers. The technical blockade, device embargo, and test environment are difficult to build. Even a Datasheet and Demo can't be found. These are the 77G millimeter wave radar entrepreneurs. The actual external conditions to be faced.
2.77G millimeter wave radar requires a very high reliability design and verification process. Need to consider from the aspects of system, materials, software and hardware, structure, test verification, production process, consistency, etc., much higher than ordinary consumer-grade electronic products, and higher than the reliability requirements of carrier-grade products, the product itself must reach ASIL-D The enterprise must reach ISO16949. As an example: Millimeter wave radars have an operating temperature range of -40-125 degrees. That means almost all the materials in the BOM have to be car-class!
3.77G millimeter wave radar needs to achieve high enough performance in a small enough volume. Foreign mass production products can basically reach an effective detection distance of more than 200 meters. There are some laboratory versions in China, the detection distance is less than 100 meters, and the antenna size is huge and cannot be put into practical use.
4. The cost of 77G millimeter wave radar is very high (less than $100). The car is a bit like a consumer market, and the cost is critical. No matter how good the product is, it will not be able to land when the cost is high. Therefore, if entrepreneurs want to reduce costs, they should not think about the traditional radar technology architectures and devices such as discrete RF, DSP, and FPGA. They can only study the mainstream T/R components and chip customization.
5. Mass production test calibration is a complex system engineering. RF products need to be calibrated and consistently tested in the mass production process. It is necessary to have a wealth of RF system test and calibration experience to build this test equipment, and this production test equipment is more difficult to develop than the radar itself.
These are the difficulties mentioned above. Although many entrepreneurs have aimed at the 77ghz millimeter wave radar for cars, many people still retreat.
One person and his team saw this opportunity and analyzed all the difficulties. They chose to face the difficulties and try to win this technical battle. This person is Chen Chengwen, CEO of Shenyang Chengtai Technology Co., Ltd.
Chen Chengwen, graduated from the Materials Department of Wuhan Automotive University in 2002, is an enthusiastic technology enthusiast. During the school period, a network studio was set up and an electronic association was established.
After graduation, he worked for three companies. In the first company, it was responsible for the pilot work of switches and voice products. In the meantime, it has a deep understanding of the operator network architecture, product hardware testing, system testing, reliability testing, production process, etc. In the second company, it was specially recruited into the medium hard master technology research department. He gradually grew into a processor technology expert and R&D manager, and served as the director of the company's processor evaluation laboratory. The third company, called AT, was actually a company founded by Chen Chengwen's original colleague. Chen Chengwen was invited to be responsible for the carrier level because of his outstanding technical ability. WiFi product delivery and product management. During this period, Chen Chengwen began to study WiFi technology from the manufacturing side and the market side, and gradually grew into an excellent product manager.
During the AT company, Chen was responsible for the management of the 2012 China Mobile WLAN product collection test project. Six of the top 10 companies that won the bid were all AT-based and took the top four. According to its introduction, its leading WBS + CPE products, for non-collective mining and high gross profit, have achieved revenues of over 100 million for AT, and its leading in-vehicle LTE-Fi products have achieved revenues of over 100 million for AT.
At the beginning of 2010, Chen Chengwen and his classmates, Mr. B, started the WLAN comprehensive tester self-developed business. Chen was responsible for product delivery and R&D management. After three years of technical breakthroughs,
The WLAN comprehensive tester product was successfully launched, and its WT-200 series products successfully broke into a world under the monopoly of foreign professional companies' technology and market, achieving a revenue of over 100 million, becoming a flag of domestic RF test equipment.
The author is a bit more in this shackle. The reason is that it is to enable outside investors and potential users to learn more about Chen Chengwen and his entrepreneurial journey.
With so many years of work experience, Chen Chengwen has gradually acquired the capabilities and experience of communication, RF, baseband and complex, sophisticated, high reliability and large system design. After 2014-2015, one year of market research and evaluation, Chen Chengwen chose the smart car and automatic driving field as the development direction, taking millimeter wave radar as a breakthrough point.
In April 2015, Chen Chengwen established Shenyang Chengtai Technology Co., Ltd., and started the domestic breakthrough of 77G FMCW vehicle radar. As of March 4, 2016, after nearly a year of technical breakthroughs, according to Chen Chengwen, its 77G millimeter wave radar is about to go on the market.
How is the product doing? Frankly speaking, the author is also difficult to judge. The author's Zosi Research Institute is currently setting up a smart car testing laboratory. By the time, Chen Chengwen's products can be used to test data.
Chen Chengwen himself is still very modest, and he is frank, there is still a gap between his own products and foreign giants. The purpose of this article is not to say that the products of Chengtai have been so arrogant, but to express such an attitude: for companies that are determined to be technologically innovative, we always support and encourage more people to Pay attention to such companies.
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