Semiconductor giants are optimistic about China's smart home appliance market

In the second half of 2012, when the domestic washing machine industry united to test IQ for its own products, the semiconductor giant NXP Semiconductors at the other end of Asia and Europe has achieved another breakthrough in the interactive operation of smart phones and washing machines. , And has quietly set up the Ministry of Home Appliances in China, intends to build a huge Internet of things framework through the thin chip like flaps.

The world of IoT has long appeared in the minds of technical masters such as Academician Ni Guangnan and embodied in IBM's "Smart Earth" strategy. It has also appeared numerous times in your ears and ears. It is a world in which all items are connected to the Internet. Each home appliance can be operated by a central controller and remotely monitored and operated by a computer or mobile phone.

NXP believes that such a world is coming.

Before 2000, there were only less than 1 billion Internet-connected devices in the world. In 2011, it grew to 90-120 billion units. According to the prediction of international analysts, this figure will increase to 250-500 by 2020. Billion Taiwan.

In the field of home appliances, NXP Smart Solutions, which features “significant energy savings” based on the large water consumption and power consumption of washing machines, ranks washing machine products as the first focus of the Chinese home appliance market.

Mei Runping, global senior sales director of NXP Semiconductors' home appliance application market, explained to China National Grid that NXP's intelligent connection to RFID (radio frequency technology) and NFC (near field communication) technology enables smart washing machines to detect fabric fibers, Remote maintenance and other high-end features.

NXP Smart Washer Solution: Washing machines, mobile phones can identify clothing

After the NXP modified washing machine, information such as material type and color can be read from the buttons of the RFID tag built into the clothes, and the washing program can be optimized based on the read information.

The unified label is the premise of this technology: uniform labeling on clothes helps to identify the washing machine quickly and accurately. If a uniform label is used on the logistics, the washing machine can be delivered to the destination according to the regional characteristics. The RFID tag automatically selects settings such as language.

In the application of NFC technology, consumers who have NFC function on their mobile phones and have installed NXP software can bring the mobile phone closer to the NXP modified washing machine, so as to obtain the basic information such as the model and status of the washing machine and the operating status of the washing machine. Set up and control; authorized maintenance technicians use an NFC-enabled mobile phone to perform remote diagnosis of smart washing machines, change their working status, and initiate related applications that can communicate directly with designated service centers.

In addition, NXP also focuses on improving the application of other green smart home appliance designs such as electricity metering and temperature sensors. The NXP GreenChip highly integrated power management IC, can reduce the cost of home appliances, and achieve the industry's lowest standby power consumption, such as washing machines and other home appliances product design using efficient GreenChip switching power supply controller IC and integrated MOSFET, power consumption in standby mode The minimum amount can be less than 10mW, and the system can quickly wake up from the standby mode, return to full operation, greatly improving product efficiency.

Mei Runping said that NXP enters the Chinese home appliance market at this time. One important reason is that a new round of energy-saving home appliance subsidy policy has been implemented since June of this year, and NXP has helped home appliance companies by integrating various advanced technologies. The engineers designed home appliances that are more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, lighter and smarter, and supported Chinese manufacturers in meeting market hot spots, and designed products that meet the requirements of the Huimin Project implementation rules.

Although China's home appliance industry is in the winter, Mei Runping still shows optimism about the Chinese market. "China's home appliance industry is a mature industry, and although it will not grow a few years ago, it will still maintain relatively stable growth."

Mei Runping quoted data from Euromonitoring Information Co., Ltd., saying that by 2015, driven by the developing markets in China and other developing countries, home appliance product shipments will grow at an average annual rate of 7%, while the semiconductor market will maintain its own annual growth rate. With an increase of 8% and two superpositions, the average annual growth of semiconductor shipments is expected to reach 15%.