Haitu Microelectronics raises ¥100mn for CIS R&D

Press release (in Chinese): https://www.haitusense.com/newsinfo/6242564.html

Excerpts from a translation from Google translate:

Recently, Hefei Haitu Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Haitu Microelectronics") completed several hundred million yuan Pre-B round of equity financing. This round of financing was funded by Anhui Railway Fund, Hefei Construction Investment Capital, Hefei Industry Investment Capital, Anhui Province Joint investment by Culture and Digital Creative Fund, Guoyuan Fund, and Binhu Technology Venture Capital. The funds raised in this round are mainly used to increase the mass production scale of various CMOS image sensor chips (CIS), and to increase investment in the research and development of CIS products in the fields of machine vision, automotive electronics, and medical treatment based on new technology platforms.

Haitu Microelectronics is a Hefei technology company that 36Kr Anhui has been paying close attention to. As of now, Haitu Microelectronics is the only semiconductor company that has received simultaneous investment from all industrial investment platforms at the Hefei municipal level. At the end of 2022, Haitu Microelectronics completed the A+ round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, jointly invested by Jintong Capital, Yida Capital, and Xingtai Capital.
 
According to a set of data from Yole Intelligence, the global CIS industry revenue in 2022 will be US$21.29 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 1.87% compared to 2021, mainly due to the slowdown in demand for consumer mobile devices such as smartphones, and the continued soft landing. state. But Yole Intelligence pointed out that high-end CIS products and new sensing opportunities will maintain the mobile CIS market in the next few years, such as automotive and industrial CIS will increase, and this is also the market that Haitu Microelectronics focuses on.

36 Krypton Anhui learned that, as a functional chip, CIS relies on the experience accumulation of engineers and a large amount of tacit knowledge (know-how) in the design and production process. The best CIS design companies can better demonstrate the first-mover advantage.

At the technical moat level, CMOS image sensor shutter exposure methods are mainly divided into rolling shutter and global shutter. Zhou Yifan, chairman of Haitu Microelectronics, told 36 Krypton Anhui that Haitu Microelectronics is taking the global shutter technology route. In many application scenarios such as high-speed imaging and moving object viewing, the global shutter can perform accurate image capture and recognition in real time, which requires core sensor design capabilities. According to public information, only a few domestic manufacturers including Haitu Microelectronics have mastered this technology.

In addition, relying on the process technology platforms of different fabs, Haitu Microelectronics has established core pixel and circuit IP libraries through independent research and development, and has accumulated diverse technology development experience. Low dark current pixel optimization, high-performance pixel charge transfer, ultra-low noise, high-speed and high-performance LVDS, low-power consumption and high-sensitivity line data scanning readout circuit, high-performance optical design and other core technology fields have been deeply cultivated, and many innovative achievements have been made. R & D results. For example, in the field of global shutter exposure technology, the company's self-developed multiple pixel storage node shading and anti-crosstalk technologies have been applied to mass-produced products, making the image sensor have an extremely low parasitic light response, which is a global leader in the industry. Based on this, Haitu Microelectronics has accelerated the establishment of an intellectual property system for independent research and development results. Since last year, the number of patent applications has maintained an increase of more than 30 items per year.
 
In order to increase the introduction of core talents, at present, Haitu Microelectronics has Hefei as its headquarters, and has set up R&D centers in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Tokyo, Japan. The core team comes from Japan's Hamamatsu, Sanyo, ON Semiconductor, Huahong, TSMC, etc. Well-known IC design companies and wafer foundries, the total number of employees nearly doubled year-on-year, and R&D personnel accounted for more than 60%.