Analysis of ON Semiconductor Development under the Development of Vehicle Electrification and Intelligentization

With the trend of electrification and intelligence in the development of automobiles, fuel economy, emission reduction, active safety, automatic driving, vehicle networking, and LED lighting have become the focus of the current automotive industry, bringing more opportunities for development to the semiconductor industry. It also raised more challenges. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)/electric vehicles (EVs) boost the semiconductor composition of automotive power systems in each vehicle by about 5 times. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), convenience and infotainment systems, and emerging markets that account for more than 50% of global automotive sales have driven the global automotive semiconductor market to grow by more than 9% year-on-year.

According to market research firm Databeans, the average semiconductor cost per vehicle is $350. The use of semiconductor components in automotive applications is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Automotive semiconductor components

ON Semiconductor is one of the world’s top ten suppliers of silicon solutions for high-efficiency cars. Automotive electronics has a strong momentum of growth, with revenue growing nearly 300% from a few years ago, especially in the area of ​​automotive image sensors and AFS. It has maintained the No. 1 position in the world and will continue to provide a comprehensive product lineup and program for the automotive market development trend and continue to promote automotive innovation.

With the increasingly stringent requirements imposed by the government and consumers on vehicle fuel efficiency, energy saving, pollution reduction and environmental protection, various new energy vehicles such as HEV/EV/PHEV have been vigorously developed. ON Semiconductor supplies field-cut IGBTs, energy-efficient FETs, power integration modules, gate drivers, smart power modules, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application-specific standard products (ASSPs), and other products to support automotive electrification. The development of new energy vehicles first requires the conversion of various types of energy. In order to continuously improve the efficiency of various energy conversions, ON Semiconductor is focused on strengthening innovation in the following areas:

1. Develop a variety of energy-efficient power electronic devices, such as high-power IGBTs and very low on-resistance power MOSFETs, to reduce switching losses, thereby improving the efficiency of conversion from electrical energy to mechanical energy. Taking the power integration module (PIM) NXH80T120L2Q0PG as an example, it adopts ON Semiconductor's proprietary trench second generation field stop technology (FSII) and innovative packaging technology to provide over 98% energy efficiency with a junction temperature of up to 175 °C and reliability. Extremely high. The low on-resistance MOSFETs provide a compact, high thermal efficiency package.

Table 1. Extremely low on-resistance power MOSFETs for automotive applications

Figure 2. New PIM and MOSFETs for Automotive Applications from ON Semiconductor

2. Develop various DC-DC converters to ensure high conversion efficiency of energy from one voltage level to another, such as from 48 V to 12 V, from 300 V to 48 V, from 12 V to 220 V and so on.

In addition, for the high temperature and harsh conditions under the hood of the car, ON Semiconductor has introduced the IPM STK984-17X series of intelligent power modules, integrated intelligent sensorless brushless DC motor (BLDC) controller LV8907, 6 independent MOSFETs, precision shunt Resistors, thermistors and system peripheral components. The LV8907 eliminates the need for any position sensor, preloads configuration registers, and requires no software. It can drive the motor in a stand-alone mode, eliminating the need for an external system controller. The LV8907 also integrates a LIN transceiver to provide advanced LIN-based motor drive solutions. The STK984-17X is used in applications such as automotive cooling fans, electric oil pumps, fuel pumps, electric water pumps, etc. It does not require any external microcontroller. It uses a unique insulated metal substrate technology (IMST) to support the design without a circuit board, significantly reducing the system The space, weight and cost provide high energy efficiency and high reliability, simplifying design and accelerating time to market.

With the continuous improvement of people's safety awareness, active safety systems have been continuously applied in vehicles, especially with the ADAS coupled with various sensors have made great progress, showing the development of blowout. For such applications, ON Semiconductor provides image sensors, smart passive sensors, and other solutions that are fully compliant with the Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL B) ISO26262.

Image sensors for vision applications (such as reversing images and panoramic parking imaging systems), ADAS applications (such as blind spot detection, lane departure warning, collision avoidance and active cruise control, pedestrian detection, traffic signal recognition), and new fatigue detection and gestures Identification (in-cabin) and mirror replacement. ON Semiconductor has more than 10 years of experience in providing CMOS image sensors for the automotive market. It is the world's #1 supplier of ADAS and offers image sensors with excellent low light performance, excellent image distortion correction, and high dynamic range. (HDR), automotive grade operating temperature range and high reliability and quality. For example, the company’s first ARCMOS CMOS image sensor AR0136AT with back-illuminated (BSI) sensor technology provides best-in-class performance, 4x better micro-optical signal-to-noise than current market-leading AR0132AT, and 40% more visible light sensitivity. And improve over 60% of Near Infrared (NIR) performance. The company's new family of image coprocessors AP020x enables the HDR 1080p car imaging system, using the company’s high performance 2 megapixel sensor such as the AR0230AT and 1 million pixel sensors such as the AR0140AT, AR0132AT and AR0136AT to provide a complete and complete reverse image and Panoramic parking image plan.

Figure 3. ON Semiconductor's first BSI sensor (left) and new series of image coprocessors (right)

ON Semiconductor’s solutions for automotive reversing images also include 2 MHz switching power supplies (SMPS) such as NCV890201MWTXG and NCV898031D1R2G, low dropout regulators (LDO) such as NCV8703 and NCV8705, switching MOSFETs such as NVTFS5116PL (u8FL) and BVSS84L (SOT23), Digital transistors such as SDTC1xxEE, CAN transceivers such as NCV7356 and NCV7341, image processors such as AP0100AT, video signal processors such as LC749000, EEPROMs such as CAV25256 (SPI) and CAV24C256 (I2C), logic products such as NL17SZxx and ESD, and the like.

Intelligent passive sensors are mainly used to detect seats and sense liquid levels. ON Semiconductor's smart passive sensor solutions use the first, UHF RFID sensor tags, including a smart sensor IC called Magnus, and a printable antenna to support wireless sensing of temperature, humidity, pressure, and distance. No external power supply is required. In seat detection applications, the program combines human detection elements and standard weight detection to provide seatbelt warning indications and close/open airbags, solving the challenge of today's car seat detection systems that do not provide human detection and only provide pressure detection; In terms of liquid level, this solution is used to sense the liquid level outside the container, eliminating the need for sensitive electronics and mechanical devices in today's car tanks.

Thanks to its advantages such as small LED size, design flexibility, and energy-saving efficiency, LED lights are expected to become a trend in automotive lighting. They are used to create unique shapes, achieve energy savings and enhance safety advantages.

ON Semiconductor offers a range of LED drivers and stepper motor drivers for such applications. For example: The fully integrated addressable LIN RGB (Red Green Blue) single-chip solution NCV7430 can output 16 million different colors through LIN commands. Used for security features such as vehicle burglary and creating a personal atmosphere, this solution saves board space compared to current market solutions consisting of microcontrollers and LIN-SBC, and can use optional ballast control pins , Makes thermal management simpler, its individual LIN node obtains the address through the pre-programming or LIN order, makes the design flexible and reduces the cost; The innovative LED headlight lighting scheme NCV78663, uses the power ballast and double LED driver, provides the segmentation The glare-free high beam, integrated smart electronics, through the sensor, camera and navigation control, so that the car automatically adapts to a variety of road conditions, and maximize security through the lighting area, support modular design platform, easy to design and cost-effective; In response to the trend that AFS will move from motor control to pixel/matrix technology, ON Semiconductor supplies LED AFS pixels/moments All the semiconductor elements of the system (except microcontroller) such as LED ASSP, FET, LDO, rectifiers, logic devices, zener, protection.

From the aspects of user experience, driving efficiency and active safety, the interior and exterior of the car must connect one node to an organic network, especially navigation systems and navigation applications based on location services, such as real-time traffic information and parking spaces. Information, restaurants, gas station information, etc. As far as the car is concerned, each sub-system must work more closely together and needs information sharing. In terms of car followers, cars and other external systems, the exchange and sharing of information is even more crucial. ON Semiconductor supplies various bus transceivers and information processing units for these networks.

In addition, the body and infotainment systems are also key areas for the development of ON Semiconductor's automotive business to enhance driving comfort and entertainment.

The trend of automotive electrification and intelligence requires innovative semiconductor technologies. ON Semiconductor takes the key drivers of automotive electrification, active safety and autopilot, LED lighting, and vehicle networking as its key growth drivers. With the Chinese market as the focus of continued investment, it provides a broad array of products and solutions to meet market development, including: Devices (such as ESD/TVS protection, rectifiers, zener diodes, logic devices, small-signal triodes, comparators, operational amplifiers, EEPROMs, etc.), analog products (such as drivers, linear regulators, SMPS, power management) Units (PMUs), Audio ICs, Transceivers, ASICs, ASSPs, etc.), Power Devices (eg IGBTs, PIMs, MOSFETs, SmartFETs, Power Transistors, Motor Drivers, IPMs, etc., Image Sensors (covers global shutters, rolling shutters) Advanced technologies such as high-speed, high-speed, HDR, low-light/NIR, and system-on-chip SOC sensors/processors, from discrete components to standard products, to ASSPs, ASICs, SBCs, SOCs, from power supply modules to image sensors, and more Highly integrated modules, together with application engineers from the Automotive Solutions Engineering Center (SEC) in China, injecting innovation into the automotive market For comprehensive solutions and technical support.