ams and OSRAM focus on four major areas to empower industries such as intelligent driving

To build fully closed-loop optical technology to empower industries such as intelligent driving, ams and OSRAM focus on four areas

With total revenue exceeding US$5.5 billion, a history of over 110 years, and a wide global presence, recently, Jin Anmin, Marketing and Business Development Director of ams-osram, disclosed key data after the integration of ams-osram's businesses at the "EEVIA 9th Annual China Electronics ICT Media Forum and 2021 Industry and Technology Outlook Seminar".

In March this year, ams-osram officially announced the completion of the integration. During the event, Jin Anmin sorted out the logic behind the merger and, taking the intelligent driving industry as an example, reiterated ams-osram's original intention to create a fully closed-loop optical technology portfolio to empower the industry.

Figure 1. Jin Anmin, Marketing and Business Development Director of ams OSRAM, delivering a speech

Merger logic: balanced business layout + closed loop of optical technology is the focus

Jin Anmin said frankly: "A more balanced business layout is a very important reason for this merger." Before the merger, Osram had been deeply involved in the automotive industry for many years, and its advanced light source technology was widely used in automotive headlights, taillights, interior lights, etc., while ams Semiconductor's business area was more focused on consumer electronics. In recent years, the large number of ams semiconductor optical sensors used in smartphones has made it stand out many times. "After the merger, ams OSRAM's business has become more balanced, with 60% of the business being automotive, industrial, and medical businesses, namely AIM businesses, and 40% being consumer businesses. The balanced layout of the business has also made our development more stable," Jin Anmin added.

Figure 2. Jin Anmin disclosed the overview of the merger between AMS and OSRAM

From the technology/product level, creating a fully closed-loop optical technology portfolio is the second focus of the merger. As far as optical systems are concerned, the core technologies mainly focus on four points: emitters, optical components + micro-modules, detectors, and integrated circuits and algorithms. Before the merger, ams Semiconductor had strong technical accumulation in sensors and optical components, while Osram focused more on the emitter field. At the same time, thanks to ams Semiconductor's many years of experience in optical system-specific algorithms and customized circuits, the merged ams Osram can provide one-stop optical closed-loop systems for customers in various industries.

The "century-old store" has entered a new stage, with "new" technology trends in four major areas

Currently, ams OSRAM combines its complete closed-loop optical technology to focus on the three areas of the optical field that have the greatest demand for semiconductors: sensing, light sources, and visualization. "Through investment and integration in various forms, we are also constantly accumulating core technologies, striving to achieve better business growth while empowering the industry and customers," Jin Anmin pointed out.

In the future, ams will focus on four major application areas: consumer electronics, industry and medical, automobiles, and lighting. In the process of taking root in cutting-edge fields, ams has also explored the future development trends of these fields from its own perspective, such as: 1. The next generation of displays may adopt more delicate MicroLEDs; 2. Thanks to the miniaturization of hardware and the technological improvement of core optical components, 3D AR and VR may usher in rapid development in the next two or three years; 3. Spectral sensing technology will be more used in the rapid diagnosis industry needs brought about by the epidemic. When talking about the hottest smart driving at the moment, Jin Anmin also refined the future technology trends from three dimensions: lidar, exterior lighting, interior lighting, and in-cabin sensing.

Figure 3. AMS OSRAM will focus on four major business areas in the future

Outlook: Lighting, sensing, and visualization continue to merge, and LiDAR is on the agenda

Expert analysis: LiDAR will be commercialized on a large scale in the next 3 to 5 years

When talking about intelligent driving, we can’t avoid LiDAR. At present, millimeter-wave radar and on-board cameras are widely installed on new cars, but LiDAR has not been widely used due to cost issues. When talking about when LiDAR will be widely used, Jin Anmin analyzed: "Two or three years ago, the industry mentioned that LiDAR must be less than 500 or 600 US dollars before it can be widely used. However, thanks to the radical promotion of LiDAR application by new domestic car manufacturers and the active follow-up of traditional car manufacturers, I believe that the industry will soon be able to control the cost of LiDAR within 500 US dollars. It is expected that LiDAR can be widely used in the next 3 to 5 years."

It is reported that regardless of the demand for LiDAR in different situations of short, medium and long distances, or different LiDAR technology routes such as floodlight, pure solid-state, MEMS, and mechanical scanning, the core light source technology is still EEL and VCSEL, and ams OSRAM has obtained automotive-grade certification for both technologies.

Before the merger, ams had a lot of experience in high-power VCSEL, while EEL is OSRAM's traditional strength. Therefore, judging from the technical layout of LiDAR, the core technology of ams and OSRAM in light sources after the merger will further help the industry reduce product costs and accelerate its adoption. The large-scale adoption of LiDAR will also make it possible to popularize autonomous driving on highways and congested urban roads, as well as autonomous taxis.

Combining lighting and visualization, automotive exterior lighting presents a new trend

Unlike traditional car headlights, which are dazzling and can easily dazzle drivers in oncoming lanes at night, ams OSRAM's multi-particle LED pixel arrays can not only help the car exterior achieve a cool look, but can also use projection to actively respond to the surrounding environment, further realizing car2x communication.

Figure 4. High-pixel LEDs will help smart headlights achieve information visualization

This time, Jin Anmin mentioned EVIYOS 2.0 in his speech. As the second-generation LED product of EVIYOS, it has developed a breakthrough 25,600 pixels on a single chip with an area of ​​only 40mm2, which is very suitable for fine-resolution ADB systems in small spaces. It is reported that this product has started in-depth cooperation with major global lighting Tier 1 manufacturers, and it is believed that it will be available in large quantities in the next 2 to 3 years.

Driven by regulations and safety, interior lighting and cabin sensing will be deeply integrated

From the outside of the car back to the inside of the cabin, when talking about why the interior lighting and cabin sensing are combined together, Jin Anmin pointed out: "First of all, it is driven by regulations." According to the 2025 roadmap released by the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP), new cars must be equipped with DMS starting from July 2022, and it is said that China's CNCAP will also have corresponding requirements in 2024. This means that driver fatigue monitoring functions will be widely added to passenger cars in the future, and based on this hardware, more possibilities may be extended, such as monitoring the entire cabin, or making the current 2D solution into 3D, so that the status of everyone in the cabin can be more accurately known, and the cabin's atmosphere lights, air conditioning systems, etc. can be adjusted based on the status.

Figure 5. Development trend of intelligent driving interior lighting

Another driving factor is safety. For example, the detection of objects left behind in the car. There are many news reports of children being left in the car but the careless parents walked away, which eventually led to tragedy. If the in-cabin detection can be used, timely reminders can be given.

Driven by these two factors, Jin Anmin believes that interior lighting and in-cabin sensing will be combined in multiple applications, such as gesture recognition, human-computer interaction and the future AR-HUD head-up display. Of course, these applications all involve the demand for high-quality light sources and high-performance optical devices, and this will be where the "century-old store" ams osram will continue to focus on in the future.