"Changing the Existing Verification Model within the Semiconductor Industry"

Changing the Existing Verification Model within the Semiconductor Industry

White Paper: istgroup

Enter the Supply Chain of EV in Five Steps: An analysis of International Automotive Reliability Specs

Author: Integrated Service Technology (iST)

“Honda sets to stop selling pure fuel vehicles in Europe in 2022
Volvo sets to become a brand of pure electric vehicle in 2030
Ford targets to stop selling fuel vehicles in Europe in 2030

While leading car manufacturers are flocking to shift to making EVs (electric vehicles) in the next ten years, demands for car chips bottomed out and skyrocketed in Q4 2020, leading to a severe shortage of semiconductors.

The large demands for automotive semiconductors come in two categories. One is power semiconductors required by the aforementioned electric vehicles which consume 7 ~ 10 as much as that of their conventional counterparts. The other is the sensor components found in electric vehicles (usually denoted by level 2, 3, 4 or 5). Leading global car brands, including M-Benz, BMW and TOYOTA, have launched series of AI- based driverless smart cars featuring automatic driving, automatic parking, collision warning and automatic braking to name a few.

Electronic components facilitating these functions are subject to a series of stringent reliability tests, designed to ensure their faultlessness and damage free operation, before they can be adopted to ensure the best protection of rider safety.

The automotive industry has been well known for being closed to outsiders. Leading car manufacturers do not focus on "cost down" in their production as the lives and health of riders are much more important. Poor product design and/or reliability may result in large sums in compensation lawsuits. This makes them reluctant to change suppliers. This is not the case with the rocketing demands for "AI electric vehicles" and "ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems)," as costs of automotive electronics now account for 40-50% of total car prices (up to 8,000 ICs per car). These two new factors are pressing car makers to source electronic product supply chains out of their traditional comfort zone. The more we rely on electronic system response, the more we mandate better functional safety and the least impact on personal safety imposed by risks of malfunctions. Aiming for better quality and reliability of electronic components, vehicle makers and tier 1 system providers are setting failure rate of the former to one part per billion (ppb) and promoting the concept of Zero Defect throughout the entire supply chain.