Danlu portfolio | Shansi micro completed the pre-A round of financing
News2021-11-21 15:01:37
This round of financing is led by Danlu capital and followed by airport venture capital. Roger, founder of Chengdu Shansi Micro Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shansi micro"), introduced that this round of financing is mainly used for new product R & D, market development and production line construction.
Rise of image core components
With the promotion of graded diagnosis and treatment, the demand for CT has increased significantly. As an important part, core components and chips have become the key to CT optimization and upgrading in the future.
According to the Research Report of China's medical imaging industry in 2020, the global medical sensor market is expanding. It is expected that the total market of medical imaging sensors with different technologies will reach US $54.5 billion by 2022. Overall, the importance and application of CT and its core components are increasing.
Opportunities and difficulties coexist. On the other hand, since Huawei suffered chip outage, the "domestic substitution" of core components has become an unavoidable topic. This is especially true in the field of medical imaging equipment. According to relevant statistics, at present, 80% of the domestic CT market, 90% of the ultrasonic equipment market and 90% of the magnetic resonance equipment are occupied by foreign brands. Although the imaging equipment as the main body of the industrial chain has made a breakthrough in technology and gradually realized domestic substitution, most of the core components of medical imaging equipment in China still rely on overseas.
The absence of domestic core chips and components may lead to four problems:
First, the localization rate of core chips and components is low, the price of the whole machine is subject to the upstream imported core components, and the profit margin is small;
Second, China has not formed a complete and mature industrial chain, and new product development can only rely on verified imported parts;
Third, there is a certain technical blockade abroad, and it is difficult for domestic machine manufacturers to use the most advanced chips and components at the first time;
Fourth, core chips and components have high technical threshold, large investment, long cycle and high risk.
Further, the problem will also lead to problems such as the price of the complete medical imaging equipment is subject to the upstream imported core components, the low market share and market recognition of the domestic complete equipment, serious homogenization, the gross profit margin is much lower than that of the imported products, and the high-end market is monopolized by foreign brands.
Under the contradiction, the breakthrough of the R & D bottleneck of core components may become the main theme of the development of the medical device industry in the next decade.
Independent research and development to build the internal driving force of the enterprise
Founded in 2019, shansiwei was selected as a seed enterprise of Chengdu new economic gradient cultivation plan and favored by many capitals only one year after its establishment. Why does this high-tech enterprise dedicated to the R & D, production and sales of solid-state imaging chips and detector modules get the favor of well-known capital?
In fact, Shansi micro, formerly known as the detector Business Department of Beijing nano Weijing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "nano Weijing"), has given its core team excellent R & D strength to quickly complete the accumulation of early chip technology and detector technology, and constantly make breakthroughs in core technology.
On the other hand, founder Roger is a doctor of Tsinghua University and has many years of experience in the fields of semiconductor, radiation detection and medical imaging. As the founder of Shansi micro and one of the early founders of nano vision, his comprehensive interdisciplinary background plays a leading role in the R & D process and leads the R & D and design of the world's leading static CT detector and chip.
Shansi micro's core team itself has rich experience in chip and detector product R & D. the team tackled key problems independently, successfully developed the first domestic CMOS flat panel detector in less than two years, and accumulated rich product R & D experience in monocrystalline silicon X-ray detector. At present, the R & D personnel of Shansi micro account for nearly 50%, including two doctors from Tsinghua University and masters from 985 colleges and universities, with deep R & D strength.
Under the core component "domestic substitution", Shansi micro has its own uniqueness. As Roger, founder of shansiwei, said, "shansiwei will always stand on this tuyere and gnaw down this hard bone". The reason why enterprises can win the favor of many well-known capital may be due to their focus and understanding of this track and the technical barriers built under their excellent R & D strength.
Chips, components and customized solutions, multi wheel drive
As an enterprise focusing on the R & D of solid-state imaging chips, detector modules and other related products, Shansi micro has successfully developed the first CMOS flat panel detector in China and achieved mass production. In terms of products and certificates, the company has obtained ISO9001 and ISO13485 quality system certification. Among them, Merak series CMOS flat panel detector and linear array detector specially developed for dental CBCT application have passed the trial and registration certification of domestic mainstream manufacturers and international brand customers.
Specifically, its high-performance CMOS flat panel detector can not only realize high-speed dynamic real-time imaging, but also realize high spatial resolution imaging with low noise and low radiation dose, get the clearest image and obtain more useful diagnostic information. Meet the requirements of medical imaging core components in imaging quality, speed and power consumption.
Its CT detector products are aimed at the field of medical CT and security CT, with customized ASIC chips and customized detector modules as the main direction.
Moreover, in the research and development of photon counting detector, Shansi micro has accumulated some chip and detector technology. In the next two or three years, it plans to launch photon counting detector products with the characteristics of high detection efficiency, low radiation dose, zero electronic noise, high spatial resolution and multi energy spectrum imaging.
In addition, focusing on the electronic industry in the era of intelligent manufacturing and industrial NDT markets such as new energy lithium battery industry, Shansi micro has also successively completed the development of a variety of flat panel detector products, including pheda1133 / 1512 / 0712. Meanwhile, the company will also launch two new high-resolution products with pixel size of 50um, pheda06a and pheda113a, in the second half of the year.
Referring to the layout of Shansi micro in terms of products and strategy, Roger said: "Based on chip technology, Shansi micro will span medical, semiconductor, new energy and other tracks, and focus on the application of X-ray imaging, photoelectric imaging and ultrasonic imaging. At the same time, it will focus on medical semiconductors to break through CMOS flat panel detector technology in the first stage, expand CT detector and photon counting detector based on CMOS detector products in the second stage, and expand CT detector and photon counting detector in the third stage Fully expand to the application of solid-state imaging. "
In the future, Shansi micro will also make market breakthroughs based on existing products such as small-size CMOS flat panel detection in the field of oral CBCT and industrial NDT, and make relevant layout in the two potential directions of small-c low-dose flat panel and breast high-resolution flat panel.
On the other hand, in addition to its core components, Shansi micro is also engaged in the research and development of ASIC chips, CMOS chips and PD chips. Its chip core technology has now realized independent control. In addition to the wafer level CMOS image sensor chip for CMOS flat panel detector, the company has also made technical storage and product layout in other chips. It includes six ADC chips with different architectures and different precision, covering 14bit ~ 24bit precision And PDA array chip based on CMOS technology, signal processing ASIC chip integrating multi-channel integrator and high-precision ADC.
In conclusion, as a supplier of core chips and core components products and solutions in the medical imaging field and its expansion field, the advantage of Shansi micro is that it can provide more diversified products and services such as chips, components and customized solutions, continue to make breakthroughs in technology, and break the R & D week of core chips and components based on platform technology and modular products At the same time, due to its accumulation in nano vision in the past, shansiwei has more experience in mastering the needs of end users and solving the "last mile" problem of complete machine customers.
After the successful financing, Lu Qinchao, founder and executive partner of Danlu capital, said: "In recent years, domestic enterprises have strong R & D strength. Shansi micro not only has the bottom technical power of image chip design, but also its planned main business also includes photon counting detector, fluorescence imaging, fluorescence detection products and chip customization business in special fields. Traditional business highlights occur frequently. Shansi micro takes CMOS small flat panel detector as the starting point to enter oral CBCT and produce The product performance is comparable to that of international giants, and its differentiated product portfolio builds the core competitiveness of the enterprise. Danlu capital is full of confidence in the market prospect of the enterprise and expects Shansi micro to lead the innovation and development of the industry in the future. "