Expanding the automotive electronics landscape with smart technology

Forecast data shows that during the period 2021-2025, smart power and smart sensing will drive twice the market growth, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7%-9%, among which the average CAGR of smart power is 15% and the average CAGR of smart sensing is 13%. Both technologies are inextricably linked to the automotive and industrial fields.

In the automotive and industrial fields. ON Semiconductor has previously predicted that the CAGR of the automotive and industrial fields will be 7%-9% from 2021 to 2025, with the automotive industry at 17% and the industrial field at 7%, and other markets may decline. In addition, 5G is also a very important market, and the CAGR of the 5G market is expected to reach 11% from 2021 to 2025.

ON Semiconductor Wu Zhimin, director of application engineering for China, said in an interview with Electronic Engineering Times that as the process of automotive electrification accelerates in countries around the world, automotive OEMs are expanding their electric vehicle product portfolios to compete on mileage and performance. By 2028, electric and hybrid vehicles will account for more than 50% of total vehicle sales. For suppliers, this is a huge opportunity to support the development of a sustainable ecosystem.

Of course, manufacturers need to have a wide range of product portfolios to support the rapid growth of automotive electronics. At present, ON Semiconductor 's semiconductor products are used in many fields of automobiles, including on-board chargers, high-voltage load battery management, DC-DC, high-voltage powertrain, main drive inverter, 48 V belt drive starter-generator (BSG), ADAS, infotainment, door, seat control, etc., and the automotive business revenue accounts for about 33%.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is one of the key points emphasized by Wu Zhimin. As a key material for third-generation semiconductors, silicon carbide can significantly improve the system efficiency of electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging, and energy infrastructure. Therefore, in August 2021, ON Semiconductor announced the acquisition of silicon carbide wafer supplier GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) to strengthen its strategic layout from "substrate to system".

ON Semiconductor Silicon carbide power devices include SiC MOSFETs, SiC diodes, and full SiC & hybrid SiC modules, and are packaged in differentiated die-cast molds. Compared with gel modules, the main advantages of the former include higher power density, lower stray inductance, higher operating temperature (200°C or even above), and can be customized for differentiation.

Take VE-Trac Dual as an example. This is a power module designed by ON Semiconductor for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), full hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), pure battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). It is optimized for traction inverter applications and implements many innovations, including double-sided cooling, which enables high power density and small size.

The inverter plays a key role in the electric powertrain, equivalent to the fuel injection system in an internal combustion engine, and directly affects the overall energy efficiency of the electric vehicle and the driving range that can be achieved per charge. By developing VE-Trac Dual, ON Semiconductor will be able to achieve higher energy efficiency in a wider range of electric vehicles.

In addition to excellent electrical and thermal performance, VE-Trac Dual's easy power expansion feature is also worth noting. In actual use, you can use three half-bridge modules to achieve 150 kW power, or combine two 150 kW modules to achieve 300 kW power without increasing the space. In addition, in the double-sided cooling module, the IGBT smart chip also has built-in temperature and current sensors for better temperature detection and circuit protection.

According to the plan, ON Semiconductor's main drive power packaging technology will transition from double-sided indirect water cooling to direct water cooling mode in mid-2023. It is expected to achieve double-sided direct water cooling by the end of 2023, and further optimize to double-sided direct water cooling + solution in mid-2024. The core purpose is to continuously reduce the thermal resistance of the device.

Wu Zhimin emphasized that ON Semiconductor has placed automotive applications in an important position during the development phase and has invested considerable effort in reliability. In addition to AECQ/AQG3 standard verification, a lot of work has also been done in static, dynamic, and gate verification. The results show that its data changes very little and its reliability is trustworthy.

▲ ON Semiconductor Wu Zhimin, Director of Application Engineering, China

ON Semiconductor has not only made great achievements in the field of electric vehicles, but also actively deployed in the field of solar/energy storage charging stations, which are closely related to electric vehicles. Considering that the charging station solution involves multiple chips such as PFC, AC-DC, DC-DC, etc., ON Semiconductor has been able to provide customers with complete solutions including thermal/electrical simulation models, silicon carbide, analog ICs, auxiliary power supplies, and sensing protection technologies very early.

In a previous interview, Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO of ON Semiconductor , said that ON Semiconductor has made great efforts to ensure the safety of intelligent sensing technology for automotive cameras, such as analyzing more than 4,000 failure modes to ensure correction in the event of a failure; its market share in the ADAS intelligent sensing part exceeds the total of all competitors; it can save an average of 9 lives every hour; its 8-megapixel sensor can detect not only pedestrians but also stones on the ground at a distance of 185 meters, which is 100 times the vision of the human eye under all conditions.

Wu Zhimin said that in terms of the high dynamic range (HDR) indicator of image sensors, which users are particularly concerned about, ON Semiconductor has provided the industry with excellent HDR performance with its unique super exposure technology and uniform pixel architecture, which can effectively suppress LED flicker.

At the same time, people are increasingly finding that more and more automotive subdivision functions rely on cameras, whether it is front-view camera perception, AD panoramic perception, surround view and automatic parking, or combined applications, such as front-view cameras with DVR or AR functions, blind spot AD cameras + surround view, rear-view AD + electronic rearview mirrors, etc. In addition to the increasing number of cameras, the pixel of the camera has also increased from the previous 1 million/2 million pixels to the current 8 million pixels.

In the smart cockpit, the use of RGB-IR image sensors is becoming popular. Image sensors (or IVEC products) with better near-infrared sensitivity can help to miniaturize the camera size. For this reason, ON Semiconductor has adopted a model that integrates image sensors and lenses. Compared with the current 3cm³ cockpit module, the IVEC product has a volume of only 0.5cm³, which is more than 6 times smaller. Users do not need to design camera modules or optical debugging, which is convenient for saving production capacity and flexible manufacturing.

Laser radar (LiDAR) is also an important part of intelligent perception. At present, many laser radar products use avalanche photodiode (APD) components, while ON Semiconductor provides silicon photomultiplier tubes (SIPM). Compared with APD, SIPM has better consistency and supports a single-shot detection distance of 150m and a multi-shot detection distance of 300m.

"SIPM products have excellent photon detection efficiency (PDE) performance. Its single-photon detection capability allows the system to monitor distances within 300 meters. In addition, it can identify objects in low visibility and perform well in smoky environments. This detector technology can be used in single-pixel, linear array or area array sensors." Wu Zhimin said.

Another smart sensing product is a dedicated ultrasonic chip, whose dynamic gain and echo detection functions can distinguish between stationary objects, people and pets. In ON Semiconductor 's chip solution, it can support different modulation technologies, such as amplitude modulation, binary phase shift keying (BPSK), frequency chirp, etc., and can also enhance different features as needed to improve the safety level of the entire solution.

Currently, ON Semiconductor ranks first in the ultrasonic parking assist IC market, so it was selected on the Minerva platform. At the same time, thanks to its outstanding performance in the field of X By Wire (wire control), ON Semiconductor has cumulatively delivered 1 billion inductive position sensors for X By Wire applications.

In general, transmission systems and advanced safety also promote the electrification of automobiles. From the perspective of automobile transmission systems, the power source of traditional automobiles to electric vehicles is the development from internal combustion engines to electric motors; advanced safety is the development of automobile autonomous driving from L0/L1 to L4/L5.

Statistics show that the cost of electronic components in L0/L1 cars in the internal combustion engine era is only $50; when it comes to 48 V hybrid, L2 and above, the cost of automotive electronic components is about $280; and the cost of electronic components in electric and hybrid cars above L2 is $750; in the future, the cost of electronic components in L4/L5 self-driving cars can reach $1,600 per car. The actual automotive electronic component content of customers will soar from $131 in 2019 to $715 in 2022.

Today, the industrial and automotive markets account for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, which provides a huge opportunity for ON Semiconductor to fully leverage its advantages in smart power and sensing technologies to contribute to the realization of a net-zero emission economy. This means that as long as smart power and smart sensing technologies are done well, sustainable development can be achieved and success can be achieved in the market segments.