Coolcore debuts new wireless SoC product, becoming a "new guide" for drones to cross mountains and mountains

Author | Xu Shan

Editor | Yunpeng

According to a report from Zhixixi on June 8, the 7th World Drone Conference was successfully held at Shenzhen Futian Convention and Exhibition Center from June 2 to June 4. More than 400 experts from industry and academia gathered together, 300 domestic and foreign companies, and thousands of drones to attend the World Drone Conference to witness the new climate of the drone industry.

In a corner of Hall 9, a chip manufacturer's booth was crowded with entrepreneurs and visitors from all walks of life. The manufacturer's recent proud product was being unveiled here for the first time: Coolcore AR803X chip.

Cool Core AR803X is the world’s first 150M-7GHz full-band wireless image transmission chip, which can support communication distances of more than 15KM and can be used in drones, security, smart home and other fields.

Wireless image transmission SoC is equivalent to the "eyes" of the drone. It not only needs to be able to "see" the picture and "see" the picture clearly, but also monitor distant movements in real time. In most cases, wireless image transmission SoCs are mostly general-purpose chip solutions. The wider the frequency band range the product covers, the wider the application range it can cover. After broadening the chip frequency band range, Cool Core Microelectronics Co., Ltd. The AR803X of the company (hereinafter referred to as "Cool Core") also pushes the application boundary of drones a step forward.

The drone track is currently a rising star in the technology industry. Consumer drones have blossomed in multiple fields, such as aerial photography and live broadcasting of events, while industrial drones have further penetrated industries such as agriculture, education, and inspections.. The "General Aviation Industry Development White Paper (2022)" shows that the global civil drone market maintains rapid growth, and the market size is expected to reach 500 billion yuan in 2025. Among them, the industrial drone market will account for more than 80%.

With the current opportunity, how should chip solution providers take advantage of the trend? What new technological upgrades will be made to drone chips this year? As a veteran who has been in the industry for more than ten years, how does Kuxin view the new changes in the drone track? We had an in-depth exchange with Wu Shenglong, the product manager of Coolcore Communications & UAV Product Line, and dug out first-hand new product information, uncovering the "martial arts secrets" that keep Coolcore at the top of the industry.

01.

Two major problems trap the drone,

How to solve communication problems?

As technology continues to iterate, drones have entered industry and penetrated into daily life. The flight routes and flying conditions they face have become more and more complex, and their challenges in the field of communication have also increased.

“In the past two years, industrial drones have developed rapidly in the direction of nesting, and the continuous improvement of intelligence and unmanned operation has become more obvious. Moreover, drones are being networked and have diversified needs for wireless communications. The proportion continues to increase, and the demand for air-ground integration has put forward higher requirements for UAV communication and AI intelligent processing." Wu Shenglong said.

He believes that the communication connection problems of industrial drones mainly focus on two major aspects, the limited geographical coverage of the network and the limited scale of the network.

Unlike consumer drones, the flying conditions of industrial drones are random and changeable, and the situation is difficult and dangerous. Their destinations may be among the mountains or under the vast mine fields. In these dangerous places, there are often no 4G/5G networks. The drone's activity range and real-time data transmission will be greatly affected if its communication chip only supports 4G/5G public frequency band networks.

▲Hefei Kuxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. Co-founder/CTO Shen Bo

In addition, in terrestrial network communication applications, Coolcore’s private broadband communication method can also serve as an effective supplement to WiFi/5G and provide more possibilities for subsequent wireless network development. According to reports, compared with traditional WiFi solutions, the transmission distance of Cool Core AR803X is 2-4 times longer than before, and its anti-burst interference capability is more than 10 times higher.

One of the difficulties encountered by many manufacturers is how to efficiently build drone networking solutions to cope with large-scale industrial applications. Large-scale drone phalanxes often appear in drone shows to demonstrate various performance effects. However, for a long time in the past, the efficiency of drone networking was actually low. Often, a central controller could only control the trajectory of 1-2 surrounding drones.

Coolcore improves networking efficiency by optimizing the underlying chip structure. Now Coolcore AR803X can support multiple networking methods such as point-to-point, star, and Mesh. Currently, Kuxin AR803X can directly connect 8 drones, and a central control platform can support up to 24 drones through networking.

Overall, Cool Core AR803X features three major features: wide band, high performance, and low power consumption. It can support different drone network communication protocols around the world, and can also support large-scale and efficient networking. Compared with previous products, the power consumption of the Kuxin AR803X chip has been reduced by more than 50%.

02.

Take root in the chip track for more than ten years

Cool core three moves to break into a new world

Behind the continuous iteration of chip products and the intelligent drone main control platform that explores new fields is the result of more than ten years of rooting in the drone track.

Cool Core was established in July 2011 and is listed as a member of Shanghai’s “Specialized, Special and New” enterprise list, which was selected in 2019. In 2022, Kuxin completed over 100 million yuan in financing and officially changed its name to "Hefei Kuxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd.", setting up subsidiaries and branches in Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen and other places.

▲Hefei Cool Core Microelectronics Co., Ltd.

Like the drone giant DJI, Kuxin has also been deeply involved in the drone industry for a long time. Coolcore was once the only wireless communication chip supplier in the DJI drone market. During this period, DJI was almost Coolcore’s largest customer. Such cooperative relationships are not uncommon in the consumer electronics circle. Like "Fruit Chain" and "Mi Chain" companies, how to break away from a single profit structure and avoid the risk of customer loss has become a "must answer" for most highly dependent supply chain companies.

Faced with this problem, Kuxin used three moves to create a new world in the market.

The first is solid technical accumulation. Coolcore has been working with DJI to delve into the field of drone communications for many years, from which we can learn about the most advanced drone products, and have a deep understanding of the pain points and difficulties that need to be changed in drone communication chips, and explore how to solve the problem of drone communications. The chip needs to iterate in the direction it needs to go.

For example, mountain plant protection drones need to be relayed to maintain a good flight status and expand the flight and control range of the drone due to interference from signals such as trees and base stations. After realizing this pain point, Kuxin AR803X solved the pain point of sharp decline in throughput rate in relay communication by providing wireless RF full-band communication capabilities, supporting communication up to 15km or more.

Secondly, Kuxin has been constantly looking for new market opportunities. Since 2017, after DJI began to independently develop drone communication chips, Kuxin has faced multiple crises. However, as Coolcore deepens its efforts in the field of drones and continues to explore markets such as smart security and smart hardware, Coolcore's chip types and fields are now more diverse.

Currently, Kuxin’s main business mainly focuses on two major directions, wireless communication relay networking and AI intelligent vision one-stop solutions, which are mainly used in robot (including drone) communication and main control , film and television wireless transmission, security wireless communication, infrared thermal imaging main control platform and other fields.

Six years ago, we began to expand the AI ​​intelligent vision business. The rapid growth of this field has completely eliminated the negative impact of DJI. "Wu Shenglong said.

Finally, Kuxin also goes deep into the industry and explores opportunities deep in the industry. At this World Drone Conference, Cool Core provided different chip solutions for high-end drones and mid- to low-end drones, providing users with different choices in terms of cost, product power consumption, performance, etc. .

Accumulating technology and experience in the industry, constantly looking for market opportunities, and seizing market opportunities have become the key secrets for Kuxin to get out of the trough period. This also echoes its company's vision to "become the global leader in smart chips." .

03.

The "big guy" hiding behind the player on the drone's head

Cool core empowers inspection, robots and other industries

Kuxin seized the market opportunity and quickly implemented many typical scenarios. Among them, the security field has become one of the standardized scenarios that Cool Core focuses on creating.

Equipped with the Cool Core AI vision and image transmission chip, the Harbson ACE 2 drone can identify and suppress noise through the AI ​​extended algorithm, and can also obtain purer low-light image quality in dark light, overcoming the This solves the previous problem of poor image quality when taken by drones at night.

Not only are consumer-grade drones equipped with Coolcore’s related products, but industrial drones often use Coolcore’s chip solutions to achieve more efficient work efficiency.

For example, the Sheng drone and Baolian lantern fully automatic airport just launched by Yunsheng are interconnected through multiple chip solutions such as Coolcore AI vision chip and wireless image transmission chip, which can achieve a maximum inspection coverage radius of up to 7km, and supports visible light modeling, temperature measurement, and long-view shooting.

Shen Bo, co-founder and CTO of Cool Core, once said that before 2016, more than half of the world’s civilian drones used Cool Core’s wireless image transmission chips. Although DJI has launched self-developed chips, Coolcore still accounts for more than 70% of the UAV image transmission chip market.

Currently, Kuxin’s chip solutions have cooperated with many leading manufacturers in the drone track and have consolidated its leading position in the wireless image transmission chip market. Kuxin has become a powerful player behind the scenes in the field of drones, and is now working hand in hand with terminal manufacturers to jointly promote the development of the drone industry.

04.

Conclusion: Seize the blue ocean market opportunity

Cool core unlocks a new experience in drone communication

This time, at the World Drone Conference, Coolcore brought two important products: Coolcore AR803X chip and ARD33 entry-level intelligent drone main control platform, once again demonstrating Coolcore’s expertise in wireless communications, graphics Technology accumulation in the field of communication.

Along the way from the early days of the drone market, Kuxin’s understanding of the industry has been continuously deepening. We will wait and see what new areas Kuxin will make breakthroughs in after seizing the opportunities in the drone market.

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