Comprehensive Guide to Car Chips [FAQs]

Since the end of 2020, the shortage of chips has been the top topic in the auto industry. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota, Honda, and many other car companies have announced production cuts or suspensions due to chip problems.

To this day, the problem of lack of chips in automobiles has not been completely solved, and it may become a long-term problem that blocks the production capacity of automobiles. What kind of existence do chips have in the automotive industry? This article will popularize car chips.

1. What are the classifications of automotive chips?

Chip is a general term for semiconductor component products, also known as integrated circuit (IC).

Car chips are mainly divided into three categories: functional chips (MCU, Microcontroller Unit), power semiconductors, and sensors.

Functional chips mainly refer to processor and controller chips. A car can’t run on the road without the electronic and electrical architecture for information transmission and data processing. The vehicle control system mainly includes the body electronic system, vehicle motion system, powertrain system, infotainment system, automatic driving system, etc. There are many sub-function items under these systems. There is a controller behind each sub-function item, and there is a function chip inside the controller.

Power semiconductors, mainly responsible for power conversion, are mostly used for power supplies and interfaces, such as IGBT for electric vehicles, and field-effect transistors MOSFETs that can be widely used in analog circuits and digital circuits.

Sensors are mainly used for various radars, airbags, tire pressure detection, etc. The car sensor is the input device of the vehicle computer system. It converts the information of various working conditions during the operation of the vehicle, such as vehicle speed, the temperature of various media, and engine operating conditions, into electrical signals and transmits them to the computer, so that the engine is in the best condition. working status.

car sensors

2. Who are the top 10 semiconductor manufacturers in the world?

According to Gartner, global semiconductor sales increased by 7.3% to $449.8 billion in 2020. The top ten semiconductor suppliers in the world in 2020 and their shares are: 

1. Intel (15.6%)

2. Samsung (12.5%)

3. SK Hynix (5.6%)

4. Micron Technology (4.9%)

5. Qualcomm (4%)

6. Broadcom (3.5%)

7. Texas Instruments (2.9%)

8. MediaTek (2.4%)

9. Kioxia (2.3%)

10. Nvidia (2.2%)

3. What is an autonomous driving chip?

The autonomous driving chip is also a functional chip in essence. It is a high computing power chip produced with the development of smart cars. There is an image to say that the autonomous driving chip is Mount Everest in the chip, representing the highest technical challenge.

At present, the commercial autonomous driving chips are basically in the advanced driver assistance system stage, which can realize L1-L2 level assisted driving. Some manufacturers claim that they can achieve L3 level functions. Chips for L4-L5 fully autonomous driving and fully autonomous driving are still far from large-scale commercial use.

The chip shortage faced by the auto industry this time does not involve autonomous driving chips, because these chips are mainly equipped with high-end models with a high degree of intelligence, and the total demand is not high, so it has not been affected for the time being.

Tesla Autopilot Chip

4. What are the main players and products of autonomous driving chips?

Autonomous ICs are becoming a new battlefield for multi-party wrestling, consumer electronics chip giants such as Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, AMD, innovative companies such as Horizon and Black Sesame, technology companies such as Huawei and Baidu, and car companies represented by Tesla, are being arranged in succession.

Computing power and energy efficiency ratios are the most important evaluation indicators for autonomous driving chips. The computing power required for L1-L2 chips is less than 10 TOPS, the computing power required for L3 is 30-60 TOPS, and the computing power required for L4 chips is more than 100 TOPS. The computing power required for the L5 level is 500-1000 TOPS.

Main products of autonomous driving chips

5. What is the main reason for the shortage of car chips?

There are three main reasons for the sudden shortage of car chips.

First, the impact of force majeure such as the epidemic and fire. Wafers are the raw materials for making chips. The epidemic has brought a severe impact on wafer production. TSMC and Samsung, the world's first and second wafer foundries, were forced to suspend production due to employee infections. At the same time, the strike movement in Europe and the fire at the Asahi Kasei plant in Japan once again affected the capacity of the wafer foundry.

Second, the rapid recovery of the auto industry and insufficient supplier estimates. According to Strategy Analytics statistics, the number of functional chips installed in various levels of automobiles is increasing year by year. At present, the average car uses about 25 functional chips, and some high-end models have exceeded 100. In the second half of 2020, the rapid recovery of the automobile market represented by China has exceeded the supply chain's prediction of chip demand.

Third, the competition for the production capacity of consumer electronic products. On the one hand, the demand for consumer electronics products has increased significantly during the epidemic. On the other hand, the profit margin of automotive chips is far less than that of consumer electronics chips. Some chip suppliers tend to reserve production capacity for consumer electronics products.

6. What raw materials and processes are involved in chip production?

At present, ICs are mainly silicon-based chips, and silicon wafers are the raw materials for making chips. The IC production process mainly involves chip design, wafer processing, packaging, and testing.

The operation of IC companies is divided into two modes, namely the IDM mode and the Fabless mode. The IDM mode means that the design, production, packaging, and testing of the chips are all done by themselves. The Fabless model refers to those chip design companies that focus on the design, development, and sales of chips and do not have a fab. These companies outsource wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and other links to foundries, which are called Foundry.

At present, only a few companies such as Intel, Samsung, and Texas Instruments can independently complete all the processes of design, manufacturing, and packaging, and testing. Most chip companies are only engaged in chip design, such as Huawei, MediaTek, Qualcomm, etc. TSMC is the world's largest foundry.

7. What is wafer size?

Classified by size, there are currently three types of wafers used in the industry: 6 inches, 8 inches, and 12 inches, of which 8 inches and 12 inches are the most widely used.

Regarding the evolution of wafer size, it is generally accepted that 4-inch silicon wafers dominated in the 1980s, 6-inch wafers dominated in the 1990s, 8-inch wafers dominated in the 2000s, and 12-inch wafers dominated after 2008.

wafer

After 2008, with the outbreak of the mobile Internet, chip upstream and downstream companies are investing heavily in more advanced 12-inch wafers and began to gradually phase out 8-inch wafer production lines. According to statistics from the international semiconductor industry association SEMI, as of 2019, 12-inch wafers have accounted for 67% of all wafer shipments.

However, 8-inch wafers are just the counterpart technology for car functional chips. As the demand for chips from automobiles increases, the industry chain has begun to increase investment in 8-inch wafer production capacity.

8. What is the chip manufacturing process?

The chip manufacturing process refers to the size of the gate width of the chip transistors. The smaller the nanometer number, the greater the transistor density, and the higher the chip performance. The gradually shrinking chip process numbers represent the direction of chip technology advancement.

However, due to the different nomenclature of each company's process technology, it is impossible to make absolute judgments on each process technology under the same nanometer process. For example, Intel's 10nm transistor density is comparable to Samsung's 7nm and TSMC's 7nm transistor density.

Chip process and main application fields

9. How many chips does a car need?

In the past, manufacturing a traditional car generally required about 500-600 chips. With the continuous development of the automotive industry, today's cars are gradually developing from mechanical to electronic, and cars are becoming more and more intelligent. The number of chips required is naturally more. It is understood that the average number of chips required for each vehicle in 2021 has reached more than 1,000.

In addition to traditional cars, new energy vehicles are the "big players" in chips. Such vehicles require a large number of DC-AC inverters, transformers, inverters, and other components, and these demand for semiconductor devices such as IGBTs, MOSFETs, and diodes. There has also been a substantial increase. A better new energy vehicle may require about 2,000 chips, and the demand is very staggering.

10. How long is the car chip shortage expected to last?

The market generally predicts that the shortage of car chips will be a long-term problem. According to feedback from major global chip suppliers, if there are no accidents in the short term, the delivery cycle of chips is generally delayed by 6 months.

At present, the chip-scale of the global semiconductor industry is between US$300 billion and US$400 billion. Among them, car chips are about 40 billion US dollars, accounting for less than 10%, which will obviously lead to a weak situation for car companies when scheduling production or competing for orders.

In the long run, breakthroughs in chip technology depend on the development of the entire upstream and downstream industry chains. Compared with consumer chips required for mobile phones and computers, car chips have higher technical requirements and performance standards, and a longer development cycle, requiring at least 5 years.

The high standards, strict requirements, and long cycle of automotive-grade chips have repeatedly raised the entry threshold, which also directly leads to only chip companies with strong comprehensive capabilities or vertical integration capabilities and the ability to maximize their scale advantages. Automotive-grade chips are included in the production list. Looking at the world, there are only a few such automotive-grade chip companies, such as NXP, Infineon, and Siemens.