PCB Tech - Overview of smart PCB controllers for home appliances

From the well-known all kinds of "cloud" appliances to "net" technology, from the popularization of new concepts to the interconnection of technology, the innovation of the smart home appliance industry can always create the PCB market demand from the concept. As an important part of the PCB products of smart home appliances, the development technology of the controller solution is constantly upgrading and progressing, making a huge contribution to the smart wind of home appliances.

At present, the concept of "humanization" has been put forward in the areas of PCB products such as kitchen appliances, small household appliances, etc. The humanized functional design of the water heater is more convenient, energy-saving and comfortable to use; the induction cooker has added appointment timing, heat preservation, child locks, etc. The function makes the induction cooker more humane; the tea set introduces the function of preventing dry burning and automatic water shutoff, and boiling water to make tea is more humane...In short, "humanization" has become the research and development direction of various home appliance PCB products.

As an important upstream industry of home appliances, the home appliance intelligent controller industry is gradually growing up with the development of the domestic home appliance industry. It has been separated from the home appliance manufacturing industry and has become an emerging industry. At present, smart controllers have been widely used in large white home appliances and small home appliances, but a large number of home appliances still use switches or mechanical program controllers. Smart controllers have huge room for growth in the field of home appliances. According to statistics from the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, in 2009, about 40% of refrigerators produced in China used electronic intelligent control technology, and this proportion is expected to rise to 60% in 2015; the proportion of fully automatic models using electronic intelligent control technology in washing machines accounted for about 51 %, is expected to rise to 80% in 2018; in the field of small home appliances, the current proportion of products using smart controllers is about 30%, and there is huge room for the development of smart controllers for home appliances in the future.

In recent years, a number of smart home appliance controller companies with certain professional development and design capabilities, experimental testing capabilities, and process manufacturing capabilities have emerged in China, such as those specializing in inverter air-conditioning controllers. At present, the management of domestic appliance intelligent controller enterprises has the characteristics of focusing on intelligent controllers of a certain or a certain series of appliances and focusing on serving several appliance manufacturers. Each company has formed a situation of independent market division and misplaced competition, but this situation is dynamic and stable. Each company is constantly striving to find new customers and develop chips for new areas to increase its market share. .

The domestic appliance intelligent controller industry is generally in the early stage of development. On the one hand, there are a large number of intelligent controller companies, smaller scales, and weaker strengths. In order to seize the opportunity in the fierce competition and obtain the first-mover advantage, intelligent controller companies often choose individual products as their breakthrough points, and concentrate limited resources on the research and development of individual PCB products. After a period of hard work, gradually Form its own technical advantages in products. On the other hand, in the early stage of the development of home appliance intelligent controller companies, customers are often single, and the requirements of home appliance manufacturers are also higher. Factory products are highly matched products. Over time, intelligent controller companies gradually accumulated advantages in the PCB product, and then turned the product into the company's "core product."

After preliminary development and accumulation, the smart PCB controller solution development company for home appliance controllers has gradually developed its own "core customers" and "core PCB products". In the long-term cooperation with "core customers", the two parties have established mutual dependence This kind of strategic partnership is long-term and stable.