The automotive industry is picking up a automatic driving platform battle, but as one of the world's largest semiconductor companies seems to have someone else, it looks with the old opponent Ying Weida, Intel and Ressia are completely uniform.
However, this idea of watching a flat semiconductor can definitely use ignorance, it is still unmovable in the global car market. Although it has not launched a formal product, the company has provided a variety of black technology for rapidly changing auto markets.
First, it has a powerful MCU (microcontroller) family, based on ARM Cortex-R52, using six-core design, mainly expanding data flow in the automotive industry.
In addition, it is also a 360-degree private integrated circuit (ASIC) visual processor to serve the 360-degree integrated circuit (ASIC) visual processor for mysterious partners (not Mobileye) to supply L3 / L4 automatic driving market. In the future, it will also apply the latest 28nm FD-SOI technology to two chips above.
In addition, it is still designed to design a new laser radar ASIC chip - it will continue to use flight time (TOF) technology, and the technology has proved its own strength on high-end intelligence.
Obviously, the STMicroe did not ignore this automatic driving battle, and it did not fall behind people. The biggest difference from other manufacturers is that this chip giant wants to take more income by tentacles in various fields in the automotive market, and "Guang Sa" is the core strategy of intention.
Phil Magney, founder and Chief consultant, "said the STMicroe, it is really no action on the automatic cars stack, as if the gap between other semiconductor companies is constantly pulling. However, it is in the automotive market. In fact, it is a multi-face, it has its own set of information in information entertainment, ADAS, power system, body control, etc., and market share is not falling. "
MARCO Monti, the head of the instructor, said in an interview: "The figure of 'silicon' in the automotive industry is getting more and more. Whether it is traditional internal combustion locomotive, mixing cars, electric vehicles or automatic driving vehicles Do not open the core. "
In Monti, the advantage of STMicroelectronics is that "can find the latest growth point from the trend of changing the car market.
"Silicon" is becoming the protagonist of the automotive industry
ECU should bear more data processing tasks
Not long ago, the STMicroelectronics revealed three new car chip projects. Of course, these products are in the R & D status.
Monti revealed that in three chips, one is based on ARM Cortex-R52 ECU (engine control unit), which uses six-core design and closing is 400MHz.
In the future, this ECU "Stellar" will develop into a chip family, dedicated to the problem of solving power systems and security roadmaps. In addition, this chip will be processed this year and use 28 nm FD-SOI process technology.
The processing power of the ECU rises straight line
In addition, it is necessary to significantly improve the processing power of their own products, and the new product processing power will reach 15 times the existing Power Architecture 32-bit car MCU (three cores, 40 nm process, main frequency 200MHz).
So what is the competitive advantage of the new ECU?
Monti also listed many selling points. First, the melans claim that he has completed the internal network optimization of each core and peripheral devices. Secondly, it is also uses "28 nm FD-SOI technology", which integrates new 16/32 MByte flash unit (phase change memory) in this technology.
Cooperation with Mobileye has been extended to Eyeq6
The revenue of the semiconductor in the car comes from the powerful automotive market sector. This department's products include the car audio, internal combustion engine power system, passive safety and car body, etc.
For example, it is an ASIC / ASSP (for engine control) market share, 40% of audio amplifiers, radio frequency and visual systems (for ADAS) reaches 30%, while car lighting is terror 45%.
Monti insists that although these products may not be directly powered with automatic driving, the technology accumulates in different fields to make the best candidates such as Mobileye and other giants to find partners.
STMicroe is deep in the automotive industry
Monti pointed out that Mobileye and Intel have no experience in the automotive industry, and their tricks are algorithms and calculations.
He said: "We are the most sincere partner of Mobileye (now Intel)." In Monti, it seems that semiconductor can integrate Intel / Mobileye's intellectual property (algorithm) with its own foundation in the automotive industry, while completing the follow-up Production management and visual processor testing. In addition, it is possible to ensure that Mobileye's Eyeq chip meets the safety requirements of all car grade products.
This year, Mobileye's new generation of vision processors Eyeq5 will start to do, this chip will lead L4 / L5 market. On the previous EYEQ4, the STMicroe has always been the mobileye's substitute, and their 28nm FD-SOI technology has become a partner's deputy pill.
Of course, the new Eyeq5 foundry is replaced by the chip renewal giant Terminal (TSMC), and the process technology has also used a new FinFET. However, this does not mean that the semiconductor is out of favor, it also has a close relationship with TSMP, and the cooperation with Intel / Mobileye has expanded to the NOEQ6 that has not been released. This chip is specially driven by Level 5, will 2020 officially used.
In addition to working with Mobileye, Monti said that its team is also designed with 360 degree ASIC vision processor.
When asked related details, Monti revealed that "This is also a collaborative project, but the partner is not Mobileye." Monti did not want to disclose who the partner is, but he said: "We integrate their IP to integrate Visual processor, this is a car CMOS solution with 28nm FD-SOI technology. "However, this processor is the main thing for the L3 / L4 automatic driving."
Laser radar chip
In addition to the above planning, it has also made a lot of effort in the development of sensor technology.
Magney pointed out that "It is accelerating the research and development of sensor technology. Radar, camera and laser radar are involved. But as in other fields, it can only be considered a component in the module. In the auto market, STMic More than a behind-the-scenes military division, it is responsible for providing a variety of important applications, such as the essential semiconductor integrated circuit diode for electric vehicles. "
At the moment, the most eye-catching development project of semiconductor is mostly a laser radar chip. Monti said: "We are developing chips for laser radar receiver, which uses flight time technology that has experienced strict test in high-end intelligent machine markets."
It is reported that this chip will be officially processed next year, and the first-level supplier and system integrator 2020 or 2021 can be used.
STMicroelectronics also involved in laser radar market
Monti is also faithful to laser radar. For those who are ready to rely on visual processors and radar chips, Monti believes that it is an idiotic. In his opinion, laser radar is a must-have to drive a car in Level 5, and it can exchange sufficient redundancy.
However, he also admits that the cost of laser radar is still too high. "With the development of technology, laser radar after entering large-scale mass production will definitely achieve the expected cost goals." Monti confidently.
Since the STMicroe is absent from the automatic driving stack competition, some people suspect whether they will develop an automatic driving platform. Magney believes that "development of automatic driving stack requires large-scale collaboration and investment, which is much larger than the risk of the primary selling components."
Handling and Semiconductor Integrated Circuit (SiC)
STMicroe is mainly due to the fact that "it covers a variety of applications in the auto market," product line is quite wide. "
Some insiders pointed out that the analog IC (integrated circuit), MCU, logic IC and separation components of the global model are preferred. The analog IC is generally used in passive safety and ABS brake systems, while our analysis shows that it is in an absolute leading position in this area. "
In the eye of the financial analyst, it is also a potential stock because they have created a product line that almost covers the entire industrial chain, which not only has a low pressure field effector (MOSFET), but also high-pressure insulation electrical crystal (IGBT) and other power supply Device. This also means that they fully have the upcoming mixed and electric vehicle markets directly, providing a complete design solution for manufacturers.
Monti also revealed that the popularity of silicon carbide (SiC, commonly known as diamond sand) is far more than expected. The light is in the second half of 2017, they sell more than 2 million silicon carbide modules, this year, its sales will even grow ten Multiplier.
In many innovations in the silicon carbide market, the Monti team is proud of the Monti team but must be strictly adhered to a dedicated silicon carbide module, which can directly add the user's power module. "This solution is a typical case of electromechanical integration, and the effect is quite good.
However, it is the super oligarchy of semiconductor and non-silicon carbide market.
According to the love board network, British Flying Ling and the idea are old hands developed by power electronics integrated circuits, and they have sold soldiers under the silicon carbide market. Take a low pressure field effect tube, it means a plate-shaped structure, and British Flying Ling played a tag door structure, the latter technology is updated, more performance, but maturity is relatively low.
"The two companies are in deep cultivated silicon carbide business. They have seen growing high-voltage electric vehicles." Magney said. "This market is still very young, but the prospect is quite strong, and the highest pressure in the future may reach 800 V."
The development of silicon carbide equipment has been plagued by the quality of material quality for many years. In this field, WolfSpeed is an absolute research and development ahead. If Beton can successfully complete the acquisition of the company, I am afraid that it has achieved great advantage. However, this acquisition was finally stopped by the US government.
From a market perspective, Tesla has always been one of the big buyers of semiconductor, and in the Chinese market in British. However, now, which company can be judged to laugh at the end, it is still early.
Original address: https://www.eeboard.com/news/yifabandaoti/
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