It is predicted that by 2028, more than half of every 100 cars sold worldwide will be electric, including pure electric, hybrid and so on. With the increasing proportion of electric vehicles, automotive semiconductor companies are ushering in new business opportunities while embracing great changes.
ON Semiconductor, which has been deeply involved in the automotive field for many years, also has the right to profit. In August 2021, ON Semiconductor officially changed its name to ONSEMI. ON Semiconductor CEO Hassane El-Khoury has repeatedly stressed that the name change marks the company's focus on developing intelligent power supply and intelligent perception technology to cope with the high growth in the automotive and industrial sectors.
New "trends" in cars
With the continuous advancement of intelligent driving, the demand for automotive semiconductors has jumped sharply. "If there is no ADAS function or only reach the level of L1, a single car semiconductor is about $50; in the 48V micro hybrid, its ADAS reaches L2 or more, and a single car has a semiconductor opportunity of $280; for xEV with autonomous driving levels of L4 and L5, the cost of a single volume of automotive semiconductors will reach $1600." Wu Zhimin, onsenderme's director of application engineering in China, said, "Entering 2022, more and more electric vehicles will be equipped with L2+ and above ADAS capabilities, and the average vehicle will generate $715 in semiconductor opportunities. ”
With this wave, there is no doubt that the opportunities for intelligent power and intelligent perception have also increased significantly.
After years of development, ON Semiconductor has accumulated a wealth of technologies and products in the automotive field. In terms of intelligent perception, it has a full product line of image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and lidar; in terms of automotive intelligent power supplies, it includes silicon carbide (SiC) and IGBT modules for electric/hybrid (EV/HEV), as well as power management ICs for LED lighting, body electronics, and other fields.
In terms of Intelligent Perception technology, SiC is already in demand. Because it adapts to the needs of the next generation of 800V batteries and becomes an important technology to achieve longer endurance and lighter body, ON Semiconductor is also working hard.
In addition, cameras are increasingly used in automobiles. "Whether it's front-end perception, scene awareness, surround view, or combination applications such as integrated DVR or AR, blind-zone AD camera + surround view, etc., these subdivision functions rely on cameras to achieve." Wu Zhimin further pointed out, "In addition to the number of more, the pixel requirements for a single camera are also getting higher and higher, from the previous 1 million /2 million pixels, to the current 8 million pixels." In addition, such as low illumination and high dynamic range need to be continuously improved. ”
It is worth noting that as cameras are continuously interconnected with 5G and the cloud, security has become more and more important. Wu Zhimin mentioned that ON Semiconductor is a member of the network security standard ISO21434 working group, which can provide image sensor-based network security solutions, authentication for sensors, tamper detection, and video data encryption. At the same time, its Intelligent Sense and Intelligent Power supply can achieve the high safety performance of automotive safety integrity level D (ASIL D).
With the full spread of car core shortage, it is triggering the reshaping of the automotive supply chain. Wu Zhimin believes that with the increasing share of semiconductors in automobiles, car manufacturers are paying more and more attention to the selection and supply of semiconductors. ON Semiconductor is aware of this trend, and the sales team works directly with OEMs to understand their needs at the source and provide comprehensive technical and product support.
Vigorously develop SiC
Aiming at the above trends, ON Semiconductor has attacked all aspects of the smart power supply field.
Wu Zhimin mentioned that ON Semiconductor's intelligent power supply can be applied to many fields such as on-board chargers, battery management, DC-DC, main drive, intelligent driving and so on in the automotive field. In addition to further improving efficiency and reducing power consumption in the power supply field, ON Semiconductor has also launched a charge towards the "high ground" of SiC.
With the acquisition of GTAT, a supplier of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, ON Semiconductor has become a one-stop provider of one-stop services from substrates and epitaxy to wafer fabrication and design, as well as devices such as dies, components and modules for a comprehensive system-level solution.
From the perspective of future demand, Wu Zhimin proposed that first, SiC-based MOSFETs and diodes have been developed to the second generation, further reducing power loss. Second, the main drive power supply is shifted from IGBT to SiC module, from direct cooling gel module to better cost-effective indirect cooling plastic sealing module, ON Semiconductor is committed to developing direct water cooling or even double-sided direct water cooling plastic die-casting modules. Its higher power density, lower inductance and thermal resistance, and greater scalability reduce area and cost for differentiation.
In terms of reliability that the industry is concerned about, ON Semiconductor has also invested a lot of energy. "When verifying silicon carbide technology, in addition to standard verification, a lot of additional verification has been done in terms of static, dynamic, gate verification, etc., ensuring high reliability." Wu Zhimin stressed.
In addition, automotive vehicle charging (OBC), DC-DC, electric power steering system (EPS) and other fields, the need for different discrete devices and low-power modules, as well as charging stations required PFC, AC-DC, DC-DC, etc., ON Semiconductor provides the corresponding products and technologies. Wu Zhimin mentioned that in the future, These fields will use SiC in large quantities, coupled with ON Semiconductor's analog ICs, power management ICs, etc., ON Semiconductor will focus on providing better and comprehensive solutions.
Intelligent sensing "power"
The field of sensing can be described as the "birthplace" of ON Semiconductor.
Onsenmei has achieved a very strong potential energy from technology to system in the "three-way" approach of image sensors, ultrasonic sensors and lidar, and has continuously improved in responding to new trends.
In the field of image sensors, ON Semiconductor products not only excel in high dynamic range and high pixels, but have accumulated more than 2,300 related patents through acquisitions. In terms of microlens and color filter arrays (CFAs), ON Semiconductor also has its own factory; in terms of packaging, it provides iBGA, CSP and other forms to meet the different needs of customers. In addition, we have extensive experience in optical and image signal processing (ISP) to provide customers with comprehensive support from wafers, sensors, modules and systems.
At the level of ultrasonic sensors, Wu Zhimin mentioned that ON Semiconductor's dynamic gain and echo detection kinetic energy can distinguish between stationary objects, people and pets, and support different modulation technologies, such as amplitude modulation, binary phase shift control (BPSK), etc., and will be committed to developing next-generation products that achieve advanced diagnosis in the future.
LiDAR is an area of intelligent perception, and 2021 is also known as the first year of lidar getting on the car. While current lidar mostly uses avalanche photodiode (APD) components, ON Semiconductor has a unique approach to providing silicon photomultiplier tube (SiPM) components with better consistency, which can detect 150m in a single beat and up to 300m in multiple beats. In addition, it also performed well in the 200m+ ranging, compact system, and low cost levels.
Today's ON Semiconductor has an uncompromising strength in the level of automotive intelligent perception, not only has more than 15 years of automotive imaging experience, but also more than 400 million automotive sensors have been applied to automobiles. In the third quarter of this year, revenue from the automotive sector accounted for 33% of ON Semiconductor's total revenue. Accumulating strong strength, ON Semiconductor is taking advantage of intelligent power supply and intelligent perception to sail with full force, just as ON Semiconductor's new slogan - intelligent technology, a better future, ON Semiconductor is also using intelligent technology to promote the automotive industry to a better future.
(Proofreader/Li Yan)