According to the research report “Wireless Connectivity Market Analysis” published by semiconductor industry research organization TSR, Espressif Technology is one of the major suppliers of IoT Wi-Fi MCU chips, with strong import substitution capabilities and international market competitiveness. From 2017 to 2019, the company’s product sales market share remained around 30%, ranking first. Other competitors with significant market shares include MediaTek, Realtek, Cypress (acquired by Infineon), Qualcomm, and NXP (which acquired Marvell’s Wi-Fi business in 2019). In 2020, Espressif Technology held over 35% of the Wi-Fi MCU market share, still leading the market.
Espressif, Aoji, Broadcom Integrated, and Unisoc Wi-Fi Chip Products
In addition to the latest product ESP32-C6 introduced earlier, Espressif also launched the first IoT chip of the ESP32-C series, ESP32-C3, and the AIoT-focused ESP32-S series chip ESP32-S3 in December 2020.
ESP32-C3 offers high security, low power consumption, is equipped with a RISC-V 32-bit single-core processor, supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE 5 with Bluetooth Mesh protocol, and features industry-leading RF performance and low power consumption; it has 22 programmable GPIOs; security has been significantly enhanced, using RSA-3072 based standard authentication for secure boot and AES-128-XTS based flash encryption, with digital signature and HMAC peripherals, and a new world controller module providing comprehensive protection against various malicious attacks for IoT devices; it has rich memory resources with 400 KB SRAM, meeting the functional needs of various common IoT products.
ESP32-S3 is an MCU chip that integrates 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE 5.0, supports long-range mode, has superior RF performance, and operates stably at high temperatures; it is equipped with a Xtensa 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor and integrates an ultra-low-power coprocessor (ULP), supporting multiple low-power modes, widely applicable in various low-power application scenarios. Its AI computing capability is more powerful, with vector instructions added for accelerating neural network computing and signal processing tasks (vector instructions can achieve high-performance applications such as image recognition, voice wake-up, and recognition; it can achieve high-performance applications such as image recognition, voice wake-up, and recognition; the IO interface is rich, with 44 programmable GPIOs, supporting all common peripheral interfaces; the security encryption mechanism is more complete, supporting AES-XTS based flash encryption and RSA based secure boot, with digital signature and HMAC modules. The newly added “World Controller” module provides two non-interfering execution environments, achieving trusted execution environments or permission separation mechanisms, suitable for high-security IoT application scenarios; compared to ESP32, ESP32-S3 supports larger capacity high-speed Octal SPI flash and external RAM, supporting user-configurable data cache and instruction cache.
Aoji Technology ASR5501/ASR5501S
ASR5501 is a highly integrated Wi-Fi chip launched by Aoji in 2019 and has achieved mass sales; ASR5501S is the company’s new generation product that has been mass-produced and is actively being marketed. Compared with competing products, Aoji’s products have certain advantages in terms of adaptation voltage range, output power, adjacent channel suppression, security performance, and electrostatic protection performance. Because this chip integrates power management circuits, it can support a wider operating voltage range, expanding the chip’s application scenarios while reducing the number of external components required, making it easier for customers to reduce design difficulty and quickly implement projects.
The following image shows the performance comparison between ASR5501/5501S and Espressif ESP8266.
Broadcom Integrated BK7231U
The Broadcom Integrated BK7231U Wi-Fi SOC chip complies with the 802.11b/g/n 1×1 protocol, with an output power of 2.17dBm; it supports 20/40 MHz bandwidth and STBC; supports Wi-Fi STA, AP, and Direct modes; supports Bluetooth 5.1 protocol, -90dB sensitivity, and 20dBm output power; the internal MCU has a maximum frequency of 120MHz; it has 256Kbyte data RAM; built-in 2MB FLASH, supports transparent download; 6-channel 32-bit PWM; multiple program downloads and JTAG interface; full-speed USB host and device; 50MHz SDIO and SPI interfaces, supporting master-slave mode; supports two I2C interfaces; supports two high-speed UARTs; 6-channel 32-bit PWM; microphone signal amplification; built-in multi-channel ADC; supports 8-bit DVP image sensors; 32-byte eFUSE.
Unisoc V5663
The Unisoc V5663 is an AIoT solution supporting Wi-Fi 5 + Bluetooth 5 + MCU, featuring leading technology, powerful computing capabilities, reliable security, rich applications, and ease of development, and can be widely used in smart home, medical, children’s education, beauty and health, warehousing, logistics, and other application scenarios. Its functional features include: support for PSA-M security certification; using RTOS to complete dual-microphone VAD/voice wake-up interrupt audio processing function; supports Wi-Fi 5 / Bluetooth 5.0 / high-integration single-chip MCU; supports ARM CM33 Combo connection chip, adopting ARM Cortex M33 ARMv8-M architecture, supporting TrustZone; peripheral interfaces include USB2.0/3.0, eMMC, PWM, PDM, IIS, and other interfaces; Wi-Fi dual-band 2.4/5G, MU-MIMO; supports Bluetooth AOA AOD + Wi-Fi RTT fusion positioning; BT5.0: dual-mode, long-distance, Mesh, AoD; supports rich product combinations such as 802.11ac 1X1 2X2.
Other Domestic Wi-Fi Chip Manufacturers
Liansheng W800
The Liansheng W800 chip is a secure IoT Wi-Fi/Bluetooth dual-mode SoC chip. It supports 2.4G IEEE802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi communication protocol; supports BT/BLE dual-mode operation, supporting BT/BLE4.2 protocol. This chip integrates a 32-bit CPU processor, built-in UART, GPIO, SPI, I2C, I2S, 7816, and other digital interfaces; supports TEE security engine, supports various hardware encryption and decryption algorithms, built-in DSP, floating-point unit, supports code security permission settings, built-in 2MB flash memory, supports firmware encryption storage, firmware signing, secure debugging, secure upgrading, and other security measures to ensure product security features. It is applicable in a wide range of IoT fields such as smart appliances, smart homes, smart toys, wireless audio and video, industrial control, and medical monitoring.
Liangniu Semiconductor LN882X
The Liangniu Semiconductor LN882X chip is a new generation of ultra-high integration Wi-Fi chip launched by Liangniu Semiconductor, integrating on-chip matching network, Wi-Fi RF, CMOS PA, LNA, baseband, power management module, and main control MCU ARM Cortex-M4F, greatly reducing the complexity and cost of external circuits, with extremely low power consumption and excellent RF performance. Its functional features include: supports Wi-Fi 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n, supports STA/AP/STA+AP operation modes, supports WPA/WPA2; supports wide voltage power supply; SPI/SDIO/UART interfaces; main SPI/I2C; I2S, PWM, and GPIO; multi-channel ADC; QSPI FLASH with high-speed cache; MCU clock rate of 80/160MHz; user code available space of up to 4MB Flash; open and flexible SWD debugging interface.
Southern Silicon Valley M169
The M169 module is a cost-effective embedded Wi-Fi module with onboard antenna jointly developed by Southern Silicon Valley and AliOS Things. The module hardware integrates WLAN MAC, Baseband, RF, with a maximum main frequency of 160MHz, built-in 192KB SRAM, and 2MB flash. The entire module is powered by a single 3.3V power supply and uses a postage stamp SMT installation method. This IoT Wi-Fi solution has been certified by AliOS Things, supporting terminal devices to connect to Alibaba Cloud, featuring ultra-low power consumption and ultra-low memory, suitable for various small IoT devices, and can be widely used in smart homes, smart cities, new mobility, and other fields.
Its Wi-Fi related features include: supports 802.11 b/g/n wireless standards; supports WEP, WPA/WPA2 security modes; supports Station mode. The module processor uses the Andes N10 processor, with 128K ROM and 192KB SRAM, integrating 16Mbit SPI flash. Available peripheral ports include: 2X UART, 5XPWM, 4X ADC, 1XI2C, 1XSPI_M, 14XGPIO (multiplexed UART, PWM, ADC, I2C, SPI_M).
This Wi-Fi module has obtained the following certifications: Wi-Fi Alliance, FCC, CE, and SRRC. Its applicable products and application scenarios include: smart sockets, smart lighting control, smart transportation, smart appliances, smart security, industrial automation, etc.
Boliu Intelligent BL602/BL604
The wireless subsystem of the BL602/BL604 chip includes a 2.4G radio, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth LE 5.0 baseband/MAC design. Its microcontroller subsystem includes a low-power 32-bit RISC-V CPU, high-speed cache, and memory. The power management unit can control low-power modes. Its peripheral interfaces include SDIO, SPI, UART, I2C, IR remote, PWM, ADC, DAC, ACOMP, PIR, etc., supporting flexible GPIO configuration. The BL602 has a total of 16 GPIOs, while the BL604 has a total of 23 GPIOs.
The wireless capabilities of this series of chips include: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; low-power Bluetooth 5.0, with BLE-assisted Wi-Fi fast connection, coexistence of Wi-Fi and BLE; Wi-Fi security WPS/WEP/WPA/WPA2/WPA3; STA, SoftAP, and sniffing modes; multi-cloud connectivity; 2.4 GHz RF transceiver; integrated RF balun, PA/LNA.
Its security features include: secure boot; secure debugging; XIP QSPI instant AES decryption (OTFAD); AES 128/192/256; SHA-1/224/256; TRNG (True Random Number Generator); PKA (Public Key Accelerator).
Application fields: low-power IoT applications, Wi-Fi connections, BLE connections, consumer electronics, remote controls, etc.
Author: Gu Zhengshu, Senior Industry Analyst at ASPENCORE
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