Smart cars brew new business opportunities, active safety design tide emerges

Automobile active safety development trend: intelligent and interactive

In recent years, automotive active safety systems have developed rapidly and the market potential is huge. "Intelligent" and "interactive" will become the future development trend. Zhou Jin, Senior Manager, Application Technology Department, Design Center, ROHM Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. said that more and more new technologies will be integrated into driving safety, such as in-vehicle networks, optical fiber transmission, sonar sensing, etc. Highly sophisticated technology will continue to inject vitality into active safety systems. It can be believed that the car of the future will be more and more safe and humane. Combined with the performance of Roma's characteristic product series in the future development trend of automobile safety, Zhou Jin made a detailed introduction:

Zhou Jin, Senior Manager, Application Technology Department, Design Center, Tulum Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

(1) Intelligent

Automotive is a large market segment in the MEMS sensor market. The main focus of automotive sensors is to ensure safety, driving experience and energy saving. For example, airbags can better identify the type of passengers with the help of sensors, so that different protective measures can be taken. At the same time, Kionix, a subsidiary of ROHM, has also launched a series of solutions for active driving safety. MEMS acceleration sensors have many applications in automobiles, including for collision detection, vehicle stability control, ride control, navigation, rollover detection, electronic brake control, vehicle safety, engine vibration monitoring, hill starting assistance systems, tires Sensors for air pressure monitoring systems, etc. Kionix can provide a variety of sensor products to meet these automotive applications. For example, Kionix's flagship product "acceleration sensor" has become standard in traditional airbags, and is also widely used in active safety equipment such as active suspension, engine misfire, and electronic stability.

(2) Interactive

More and more active safety systems will provide information or warnings to drivers and act as driving assistance systems, and drivers can also control and manage them as needed. The use of cameras and graphics processing technology to identify obstacles, coupled with the activation of various early warning devices such as active anti-collision, automatic cruise, and white line recognition, have brought rich road conditions and traffic information to drivers, and added protection for safe driving. .

(3) Video processing

Aiming at various complex outdoor environments during vehicle driving, in order to ensure the imaging quality, the video encoder "BU6521KV" launched by Roma many years ago has achieved good reputation and mass production performance in the industry. It adds the fog image correction function to the digital video decoder with the built-in AIE function (AIE function: ROHM's hardware image processing technology), which can correct the fogged image to an image similar to a sunny day to make objects and text clear display. In addition, the backlight and low-brightness images can be corrected by the AIE function. With these image correction functions, it can improve the visual recognition of images in various environments and ensure driving safety. In addition, the image processing is realized by hardware, which effectively reduces the system's calculation burden, and can be set to "manual" and "automatic" modes through software to achieve intelligent design.

In addition, LAPIS Semiconductor, a subsidiary of ROHM, is a leader in the audio and video field. The image LSI for automotive equipment has a rich performance in automotive applications. It has high-quality technology of analog and digital mixed signals based on high reliability. Technical support to shorten the customer's product development cycle. The video decoding chip "ML86V76652" for vehicle monitoring and navigation launched by LAPIS Semiconductor can flexibly add various symbols and logos on the display screen while providing video decoding to provide drivers with more intelligent information.

Figure 1 "ML86V76652" video decoding chip for vehicle monitoring and navigation

(4) Remoteization of automobile infotainment

The future integration of automotive infotainment systems and automotive telematics systems is a trend, such as the use of remote wireless technology to communicate and download with 3G / WiFi, etc. This trend has partially begun. ROHM is optimistic about the future market prospects. With the help of its LAPIS Semiconductor's digital products such as wireless communication ICs, MCUs, and Bluetooth low energy LSI, as well as its own module technology, it integrates the two and exerts the Group's efficiency.

Zhou Jin explained the important development trends of intelligent, interactive and remote in the automotive safety market from the characteristic product series of MEMS sensors, video and audio encoders and wireless technology. In this regard, Roma will take advantage of the Group ’s efficiency to respond to the changing automotive electronics market with high-reliability products and technologies, helping to create a safe and comfortable driving experience.

With the help of SiC power components, ROHM promotes the increase of EV / HEV market

With the increasingly strict environmental protection requirements, low-emission or even zero-emission hybrid vehicles and clean energy vehicles such as pure electric vehicles gradually enter the market. For EV / HEV, the temperature stability of the power device, the efficiency of the power supply (battery) and the working state under high power conditions are very important. Zhou Jin emphasized that in order to solve these problems, the development and application of new semiconductor materials such as SiC will be an inevitable trend. In response to the growing market for hybrid and electric vehicles, ROHM is committed to expanding its power component product line with SiC as its core.

Compared with Si components, SiC components / modules have lower losses during power conversion and better material performance. Therefore, their practical applications in power electronics technology fields such as electric vehicles and railways are highly anticipated. Zhou Jin said that ROHM successfully achieved mass production of SiC-SBD and SiC-MOSFET in 2010, and took the lead in successfully mass-producing "full SiC" power modules in March 2012. ROHM's "Low VF SiC Schottky Barrier Diode" can provide lower losses and lower forward voltage, while also providing high-speed switching that only SiC can achieve.

Figure 2 ROHM's low VF SiC Schottky barrier diode