The trend of vehicle electrification and intelligence is driving the development of the new energy vehicle industry. IGBT is the core technology of new energy vehicles, and the performance of the chip directly affects the overall performance of the vehicle. Now BYD's IGBT products have been mass-produced and applied to its own models, which not only reduces production costs to a certain extent, but also creates a certain competitive advantage for vehicle prices.

In the auto industry, the haze of chip shortages has loomed over the entire auto industry, and there is no sign of dissipating for a long time. A few days ago, media reported that Toyota will suspend production at five factories in January next year due to supply chain problems, chip shortages and the epidemic. In addition to a large number of manufacturers such as Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, this year's production cuts due to chip shortages are no exception.

In December, according to the latest data from AFS, due to chip shortages, global auto production capacity will be cut by 10.272 million units in 2020 , of which 1.982 million units will be cut in the Chinese market, accounting for nearly 1/5. In the face of the production capacity pressure brought about by the shortage of automotive chips, He Xiaopeng could not help but sigh that "it is more difficult to pull out the core and cut off the supply, and it is more worrying to raise a glass and sell it." In today's increasingly serious shortage of automotive chips, instead of being controlled by others, it is better to say that it is self-help by making cores. Domestic companies have invested in the team of self-made cores to reshape the supply chain of the automotive industry.

Insufficient chips, domestic automakers continue to make efforts.

More than 90% of domestic automotive chips mainly rely on imported BP5062A. Now the market situation is changing, and the shortage of chips has become the biggest concern of automobile manufacturers, and it has also brought a great impact to my country's automobile industry. The embarrassing situation of difficult chip replacement has triggered the "passive" skills of many auto manufacturers, and they have deployed core-making plans, such as BYD, Geely, Weilai, etc., trying to alleviate the problem of chip shortage through independent and controllable methods of chips.

When it comes to domestic automakers, BYD must be mentioned. The executive director of BYD said that the current problem of the company's lack of cores has no impact on BYD. So how can BYD realize its dream when the core shortage problem has become the norm? Although BYD started in the automotive industry, it also has a certain right to speak in the field of batteries and chips. Under the influence of the shortage of automotive chips, BYD's new energy vehicle sales increased instead of falling, winning the new energy vehicle sales champion for several consecutive months.

In fact, BYD has invested in chip research and development as early as 2004, and is committed to the research and development of power devices, control chips, and smart sensors. It has been widely used in emerging industries such as automobiles, energy, industry, and consumer electronics. Among these products, IGBT is a product that BYD has always been proud of, and BYD is also the only automobile company with a complete industrial chain.

The trend of vehicle electrification and intelligence is driving the development of the new energy vehicle industry. IGBT is the core technology of new energy vehicles, and the performance of the chip directly affects the overall performance of the vehicle. In 2018, BYD's IGBT made a new breakthrough in the fine flat grid process and entered the IGBT4.0 era. Compared with the previous generation, the current density of IGBT4.0 is increased by 1/4, the chip area is reduced by more than 20%, and the power consumption is reduced at the same time. Now BYD's IGBT products have been mass-produced and applied to its own models, which not only reduces production costs to a certain extent, but also creates a certain competitive advantage for vehicle prices.

By the end of 2020, the cumulative loading of BYD Auto's IGBT models has exceeded 1 million. After two years of precipitation, the high-density trench gate technology independently developed by BYD has also achieved a major breakthrough, and a high-performance IGBT6.0 chip is about to be launched.

In December, BYD successfully independently developed the power device driver chip BF1181, which has now been mass-produced and supplied to vehicle manufacturers one after another. BF1181 is an isolated driver chip for driving voltage of 1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model">1200V model"> 1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V Model">1200V MOSFET and IGBT. CMTI is greater than 100kV/ μs, the driving peak current reaches 8A, which can meet the current driving requirements of most power devices. At the same time, the chip also adds the function of intelligent complementary input. When the output of the chip has enough power, it can directly drive the power device. In high-power applications, the driver chip automatically triggers the complementary input function when the output driving force is insufficient; further enhancing the chip's driving ability, thereby improving the chip's matching with other power devices.

The stability and safety of the chip are particularly important in automotive applications. BF1181 is strictly in accordance with the design and manufacturing standards of automotive products and has passed the AEC-Q100 automotive-grade application verification. At the same time, in order to improve the security of the chip, avoid the chip being broken down by the peak current generated at the moment of power-on, causing a safety accident. Under the initial working voltage of 1200V, BYD increased the voltage of the chip by 200V. In practice, the maximum DC working voltage of the chip is 1400V. In addition, a series of safety protection functions are also integrated into the chip to ensure stable operation.

Not only power units, BYD has also made layouts in the application of MCUs. Driven by automotive intelligence and networking, the market demand for automotive-grade MCUs continues to rise. MCU products are extending from industrial grades to automotive grades, and a series of For 8/32-bit automotive-grade MCUs, as of May this year, Audi MCUs have reached 10 million in large quantities, and the shipments of industrial-grade MCUs and automotive-grade MCUs have reached 2 billion. And said that it will launch ultra-low power 8-bit automotive standard MCU and 32-bit high-end MCU based on M4F core in the future.

Rockchip micro-car chip "Family Bucket"

The problem of car chip shortage cannot be changed by the power of car manufacturers, and more importantly, it needs the help of chip manufacturers. Recently, Rockchip has launched a series including RK3588M smart cockpit chip RK3588M chip, in-vehicle control RK3568M, LCD instrument chip RK3358M, vehicle AI vision RV1126/RV1109, etc., to provide chip power for the automobile industry and promote the development of domestic substitution.

Rockchip is a company specializing in integrated circuit design and research and development. It has a complete product matrix that can meet the different needs of vehicle manufacturers for various models.

The chip is the second car smart cockpit chip launched by Geely Automobile in China this month. RK3588 is Rockchip's next-generation flagship chip. It adopts an 8nm manufacturing process and contains a total of 6 billion transistors. The processor uses an 8-core CPU and GPU, with a peak frequency of 2.4GHz and 6TOPs of chip computing. It adds a 360-degree surround view algorithm, which can be connected to an 8K resolution image sensor. Through the capture of the high-resolution image sensor and the intelligent vision algorithm, the vehicle's external environment can be displayed on the vehicle screen in real time, improving the driver's awareness of the surrounding environment. The ability to perceive the environment to ensure the safety of the commuters. At the same time, the chip supports up to 5 screen drivers, including 1 in-vehicle central control display, two electronic rearview mirror displays, and two rear-seat displays. Through the multi-screen control function, it can meet the development needs of car multi-screen intelligent applications, and can bring better audio-visual entertainment experience to passengers in the car.

Epilogue

For the auto industry, this is a major blow, but if you think about it carefully, this is also a breakthrough for domestic auto chips. Many auto manufacturers and chip manufacturers have begun to face the shortcomings of domestic chips, and have flocked to the chip R&D team. To pave the way for the rise of domestic chips and speed up the process of domestic substitution.