fromRFMD and TriQuint merged to form a new company in 2015QorvoIt is a well deserved giant in the RF market. From the stock market trend chart of the company, we can see that thanks to the company's outstanding products, qorvo's share price climbed to an all-time high of US $116 at the end of last year, an increase of more than 200% compared with the lowest point of US $36 in 2016. Although due to the epidemic, the company's share price fell to more than $70 in March this year. But qorvo's share price recently rebounded to $103. This mainly benefited from the company's financial performance in the latest quarter.

According to the company's financial report, qorvo's revenue in fiscal year 2020 as of March 28, 2020 was $3239.2 million, an increase of 4.8% over fiscal year 2019. According to statistics, qorvo's gross profit in fiscal year 2020 is as high as 40.8%. Can get such a result, with the company inradio frequencyEspecially in5GRF performance is inseparable.

Consolidate the old forces

According to official data, qorvo, which was established by the merger of RFMD and TriQuint that year, combines the complementary product portfolio of both sides, especially poweramplifierAmplifier (PA)Power managementIntegrated circuit(PMIC）, antenna control solution based onswitchOur products and high-quality filters are the company's RF "cornerstone" for future needs. Qorvo also uses these products to deliver the most comprehensive portfolio of high-performance mobile device solutions in the industry to customers. It is precisely because of this merger that the new qorvo has the strength to improve the service quality provided by infrastructure and defense / aerospace industry, and can provide advanced services for other markets and applicationsGallium nitride(GAN) solution. The above is what qorvo is preparing for the rapidly developing 5g market. Looking back at 2015, 4G development was in full swing, but many manufacturers have begun to invest in the 5g R & D center. Because the new standard has the characteristics of high speed, low delay and high frequency, it will inevitably bring greater challenges to the RF front-end. To some extent, this is also a major incentive to promote the establishment of qorvo. First, look at the mobile terminal. From the current 5g development, many countries and regions use different 5g frequency bands, which requires the mobile phone to support more frequency bands; In addition, the high data rate of 5g also requires the mobile phone to be equipped with more antennas. It also promotes multi band carrier aggregation andMIIntroduction of Mo and other technologies. These new requirements lead to the demand for RF. Qorvo's leading BAW andSaw filter, GaAs PA, SOI antenna tuner and switch can meet the diversified needs of mobile terminals. It is worth mentioning that qorvo also has its own factory. Its experience in product production and packaging can help them build some smaller modular products and solve the mobile phone design challenges brought by the thinness of mobile phones and multiple cameras in the 5g era. Secondly, come to the base station, because 5g has sub-6ghz band and millimeter wave band, but no matter which band, it has been significantly improved compared with the previous network system. This not only brings RF performance requirements. Like the mobile terminal, the base station also has the introduction of antenna array, beamforming, carrier aggregation and other technologies. This has higher performance RF devices, and GaN has become the choice of developers. Relevant data show that applying Gan devices to millimeter wave 5g base stations can reduce power loss by 40%, reduce die space by 94%, and save 80% in cost. And this is what qorvo is good at. With so many leading RF devices and technologies, qorvo has achieved good performance in the past few years. Considering that the market has a positive outlook for 5g and the RF market has a promising prospect, we can foresee qorvo's future growth opportunities in this field. Relevant statistics also show that by 2022, the overall size of the RF market will exceed US $20 billion, especially 5g RF, which will grow rapidly.

In fact, in addition to the above businesses, the extensive demand for national defense, WiFi 6 and the Internet of things has also brought non negligible contributions to qorvo's performance. In order to enhance the company's strength in RF. Qorvo waved the acquisition stick. In 2016, qorvo announced the acquisition of greenpack, a leading ultra-low power and short-range RF communication technology company. The Dutch based company is a globally recognized IEEE 802.15.4 andZigBeeOne of the market leaders, they focus on smart homedata communicationAnd the Internet of things provide rich semiconductor products and software technology. Through this acquisition, qorvo not only complements the market leading high-power RF product portfolio, but also adds innovative ultra-low power consumption, short-range wireless personal area network (WPAN) SOCS, ZigBee andBluetoothSolution. Let qorvo take the lead in the Internet of things market. In October 2019, qorvo acquired Cavendish dynamics, the world's leading supplier of high-performance RF MEMS antenna tuning application technology. It is understood that qorvo has been the main strategic investor of Cavendish dynamics since 2015. The RF MEMS equipment developed by the latter is used to tune the main antenna and diversity antenna of smartphone in low, medium and high frequency bands, so as to bring stronger signal and higher data rate. Eric creviston, President of qorvo mobile products, pointed out: "Cavendish dynamics has enabled us to establish a market leading position in the field of antenna tuning. Several of the world's leading smartphone suppliers have significantly improved antenna performance by adopting CK's RF MEMS technology to reduce loss and improve linearity. CK has optimized the technology and expanded its scope of application, applying the technology to other applications such as infrastructure and national defense , qorvo will continue to work hard on the basis of the excellent work done by CK. "By this year, qorvo has completed the acquisition of custom MMIC. As an important manufacturer in the field of RF and microwave MMIC, the latter has rich experience in developing MMIC with frequency up to 70 GHz. Their participation also enhances qorvo's strength in GaAs and Gan RF products in the field of national defense and aerospace. While the market changes, qorvo These acquisitions have consolidated the company's position in the RF industry.

Open up new markets

To be sure, whether in the past or in the future, RF will be the cornerstone of qorvo, which is beyond doubt. But as an enterprise with profound technology accumulation and keen insight. In addition to RF, qorvo saw the new growth opportunities of the company and cut into them with practice. The Internet of things is the most important one. The above-mentioned pair of greenpeakTeThe acquisition of chnologies is qorvo's first heavy bet under the pressure of this market. Through this transaction, they want to enter the Internet of things connection market. Last year, they bought another company called active semi. One of the targets of this transaction is the power market of Internet of things devices. Statistics show that active semi, founded in Silicon Valley, is a rapidly rising leader in the power management and intelligent motor drive integrated chip (IC) market. The company's analog and mixed signal SOC portfolio provides scalable core platforms for charging systems, power supply systems and embedded digital control systems for industrial, commercial and consumer applications. In particular, the PAC and programmable analog IC provided by it can greatly reduce the size and cost of the solution, improve the system reliability, and shorten the system development time. Its support for the booming smart home (an application branch of the Internet of things) device market is obvious. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of the active semi "treasure house".

Bob bruggeworth, President and CEO of qorvo, once said that through the acquisition of active semi, qorvo will increase the IDP products provided to existing customers (including 5g base station, defense active phased array, automobile and Internet of things), and expand its business scope to a new high growth power management market. Qorvo is convinced that by leveraging the company's global scale, sales channels and customer relationships, we will gain a lot of opportunities to accelerate the adoption of active semi's innovative analog / mixed signal solutions in multiple markets. "

We learned from his introduction that qorvo brought active semi under his command. In addition to the Internet of things, qorvo also saw the opportunities it brought to 5g, industry, data center and automobile market. Taking 5g as an example, the new system not only brings RF requirements, but also faces unprecedented new challenges in terms of base station power supply, which is what active semi is committed to solving. As for specific practices, qorvo said that if power management, PAC and RF can be effectively combined to use power to give RF life, it can provide the industry with more efficient and high-quality solutions. Of course, qorvo's extensive customer base will also be an important reliance for the company to expand new business. After completing the acquisition of analog and mixed signal SOC suppliers, qorvo announced its acquisition of decawave this year. This is mainly focused on Apple's UWB chip market introduced on the new generation of flagship smartphones. The so-called UWB, that is, ultra wideband (Chinese ultra wideband), is actually not a new thing. As early as 1960, the concept of UWB was put forward, and in 1973, the first patent of UWB system has been granted. As a non-traditional communication system, UWB uses nanosecond non sine wave narrow pulses to transmit data as information carrier, which makes it have high positioning accuracy, strong security and anti-interference, high transmission green space, high multipath resolution and good system confidentiality. Because of its many advantages, UWB is regarded as a priority for smart home, augmented reality and indoor navigation. After Apple entered the market, the industry's attention is unprecedented. Qorvo also saw this business opportunity and acquired decawave, the leader of UWB chip industry. Qorvo said that decawave is a pioneer in the ultra wideband (UWB) technology industry and a UWB solution provider for mobile, automotive and Internet of things applications. From its establishment in 2007 to its acquisition by qorvo this year, decawave has been in more than 40 different vertical markets (from smart phones to mobile phones)UAV）More than 8 million chipsets were deployed. The company's pulse radio UWB technology can achieve positioning services accurate to a few centimeters with very low delay, which makes it an important partner for customers to enter this market. In qorvo's view, based on the pioneering work of decawave team, qorvo's own experience in RF front-end and huge customer base, the combination of the two can embrace the huge new opportunities brought by UWB's expansion to new markets such as mobile, automotive, industrial and consumer Internet of things. From the development trend of integrated circuit industry in the past few years, acquisition is undoubtedly an effective way to quickly cut into a new track. Because unlike in the past, the terminal market is developing rapidly and changing rapidly. For relevant suppliers, if they can not quickly occupy the priority position in the track, they may be washed onto the beach by the back wave at any time. As an enterprise with rich experience in this field, qorvo has stored enough "ammunition" for the future.