Abstract: eMCP (eMMC+LPDDR3) 8GB+8Gb, new materials are currently quoted at $6.3 USD (data from: China Flash Market website October 29, 2019), the same capacity recycled eMCP8GB+8Gb, the industry quote is 18 yuan about;

The life course of an integrated circuit chip is the process of turning sand into gold: the chip company designs the chip --- the chip foundry produces the chip --- the packaging and testing plant packaging and testing --- the whole machine manufacturer purchases the chip for the whole machine production.

The chip design process and strict manufacturing and packaging and testing processes on the tall chip are not the focus of this article. We will focus on the subsequent process of turning waste into treasure;

The author has been a code farmer for feature phones and smart phones for many years, and my friends have come to consult QSC6010, QSC1110, MTK6515, MTK6572, MTK6735 software issues, these are not long-term discontinuation of hemp, after in-depth understanding, it turns out that these are all The recycled CPUs, like these classic "God U"s, are not the legendary "second-hand" materials for a long time. They may already be "three-handed and four-handed" materials. I can only feel at the wafer manufacturing and packaging and testing plants in the chip industry. , The quality is very good, and the number of cycles is constantly superimposed;

1. The storage market is huge

After further understanding, in fact, the recycling of MCU is only a small part of the recycling industry. The larger market is the recycling of memory chips, because memory chips are particularly versatile, such as DDR1~DDR4, LPDDR1~LPDDR4, eMMC, eMCP, UFS These applications are too wide, and are used in mobile phones, tablets, vehicles, industrial control and other industries. According to industry insiders, the memory chip recycling market will not be smaller than the new material market. Now, except for the super-large brands, they dare not use recycled materials. Many small brands or white-label markets, this is already an open secret;

So how does the recycling market ensure the reliability of these materials? After the author has a deep understanding, I think it is indeed a good method. The yield rate can reach more than 98%. If the price is increased appropriately, the yield rate is 100% without a problem. The entire chain is as follows , This industry will be divided into several different groups;

1: Companies specializing in recycling motherboard equipment and washing out chip wool;

2: There is a company responsible for planting balls;

3: The back-end is responsible for the burning test verification company;

4: Trading company responsible for selling recycled materials;

5: Main board design company using recycled materials;

6: White-brand and small-brand complete machine companies;

The division of labor in the industry is relatively clear, and some companies recycle from the mainboard directly to mainboard design and brand sales

Two: key links and technology

In these links, chip removal and ball planting are activities that require years of experience accumulation, because now many big brands, such as mobile phones, when some big brands ship, for the reliability of the motherboard, the chip will be sealed. Glue also increases the difficulty of recycling. Ball planting is also a very particular thing. First, you need to remove the remaining solder balls, make the corresponding steel mesh, brush the solder paste and solder balls, and then pass the furnace. This is also a lot of quality Guarantee

Three: Investment in key equipment and automation equipment—application of burners and automatic burners

Program burning test is a key technology of many chip recycling companies. Now many recycling companies have begun to use automated programmers. Acroview programmers are the main suppliers of Huawei, Midea, and Foxconn burning equipment. The current main models are: Universal writer AP8000 (in some factories, the model is: PT100) and automatic writer IPS7000 (in some factories, the model is PH-A2000)

1: All eMMC or eMCP of AP8000 are made into a common program, only need to distinguish voltage and package, no need to distinguish between brand and capacity, the writer automatically distinguishes, it is very easy to use;

2: AP8000 has very complete functions, which can do master analysis, master production, and master copy; if you use master copy, the efficiency of burning is greatly improved. Many burners on the market are programs that transfer the copy through PC , If the program volume is large, then the bottleneck is not in the burning part, and often in the USB transfer part;

I specially used the AP8000 burner of Angke to burn a 28GB file for a car project (with map), 8pcs burned a total of 8 minutes, this efficiency is quite good.

3: AP8000 can configure a lot of options for users. It traverses all the special functions of eMMC. After this test, it can basically achieve the same effect as the original chip. I deliberately made an in-depth understanding of Extended CSD. There are many options. OTP (can only be burned once), some customers with special requirements have requirements for some special ECSD, so they need to be selected separately;

Four: The market price difference is large, providing a sustainable development platform for white and small brands

We still have to return to the essence of business, why so many people are willing to invest in this business, deliberately to learn about the new eMCP (eMMC+LPDDR3) 8GB+8Gb, the new material is quoted at $6.3 US dollars (data from: China Flash market website (October 29, 2019), eMCP with the same capacity is usually priced at around RMB 18. With such a large price difference, large brands or super-large brands already have a strong binding relationship with the supply chain. Small brands and white brands In the case that brand companies cannot obtain good supplier resources and prices, the recycled materials are a small breakthrough for these companies to survive in the market.